The Eevee Trainer
by UCCMaster
Summary: Ash and co has returned to Vaniville to celebrate Serena's birthday, but when extended family get involved, Ash finds himself making one of the toughest decisions of his life: prove his determination or try to look at his dream from a different angle. Prequel to Emerald Knights.
1. Chapter 1

Hey Everyone! UCCMaster here!

Here's the first chapter of my new main story. I will be probably focusing the most time on this fic. Most of my Pokémon fics (with the exception of True Colors) will be based off of the tiny AU built through this fic, meaning that characters like Sapphire and Calem from Emerald Knights will be appearing in and out of the fic. Since this happens before my current fic, I can't progress Emerald Knights much farther without getting some background from here as well. Also I know Serena got her Eevee in a different manner, so any cannon after her catching Eevee is not really used in this AU. I'll try to incorporate some Team Flare and Zygarde a bit, but I'm not super sure how yet.

Hope you enjoy this fic

I do not own Pokémon or **True-InTha-Blue** 's ideas and inspiration that led to the writing of this fic. Just wanted to say I did get permission from him/her (not so sure) to use ideas and themes used in the fic From One Side to Another.

* * *

The small town of Vaniville stood before them. The young man wore a white crew neck with a navy blue sleeveless vest over it. He had brown cargo pants with a belt. Finally he wore a gray messenger bag slung over his shoulder. At his side, a brown fox nuzzled his leg affectionately.

"Vui?" It tilted its head curiously.

The man chuckled. "Yes buddy, that's Vaniville."

He bent down and patted the Eevee on the head. "That's where your new trainer lives."

"Vui!" The Pokémon protested, shaking its head and pawing on his pants.

"I know you'd rather stay with your parents back home but you won't grow unless you move out and find a trainer. All the other Eevees have found trainers and now it's your turn too." He scratched the nervous fox behind its ears. He smiled sadly, reminiscing back to its parents, probably his two strongest Pokémon. "Besides, with my job, I won't have time to train you. My cousin is a new trainer but could use someone like you to help her learn through her journey."

"Vui!" The fox pouted, shaking its head.

"Well you haven't met her. I think you two will get along just fine. Besides, she's my cousin, she'll treat you right. I raised your parents well didn't I?"

The Eevee tackled the young man in annoyance. "Ok! Ok!" He raised his arms in defense. "I don't know whether she'll treat you exactly how I do, but you two will work something out. She won't abandon you. You're a strong Pokémon, and she would never abandon someone like you. It's also your responsibility to learn how to work with your trainer."

The Eevee still disagreed, firing a shadow ball at him and rushing off.

"Buddy, come back!" The man cried running after the small fox.

*And now begins the search for this young man's Eevee. What adventures will this man encounter on his journey?*

Said man glanced into the sky. "Who said that?"

*I am the narrator. Today I will be narrating your journey.*

"Err...ok...I guess you can stick around. Just don't peer into my mind."

*No promises!*

* * *

"Greninja, use Double Team!" The black haired teenager ordered as the frog ninja split into a dozen copies surrounding a tree. "Now follow it up with Cut!"

A glowing blade of energy materialized in its hand as the doubles dashed past the old trunk, which exploded in a thousand pieces. They boy, known as Ash Ketchum, grinned. "That's great Greninja, now use water pulse."

"Greh!" The frog yelled as it leapt into the air and threw a sphere of water into the foliage. The sphere exploded in a huge black cloud. Ash grinned at his Kalos friend. "Great job!"

"Um!"

The boy turned back to the cloud in surprise. Out of the cloud, a black spiral energy beam flew towards the ninja frog. Ash gasped as he recognized the attack as Dark Pulse. The pulse slammed into Greninja. Thankfully, the ninja's dark typing prevented major damage done to him. Ash shielded his eyes from the dust as he squinted to see their attacker. He could just make a black shape in the dust. As it got closer, he realized it was a sleek black Pokémon with red eyes. It had a yellow ring on its forehead and a yellow band on its ears. Ash recognized the Pokémon as Umbreon, the moonlight Pokémon. Umbreon charged the ninja frog with an assurance attack but the frog leaped into the air, following up with an aerial ace attack. It quickly responded with an iron tail. The glowing legs slammed into the steel tail. The two Pokémon glared at each other as they struggled to break through each other's defense. Ash clenched his fists, praying that Greninja would win.

"That's enough!"

Ash turned back to see a man in his early twenties with standing behind him. The Umbreon made eye contact with Greninja, requesting a truce. The frog glanced at Ash who nodded. The two fighters leapt back from each other and ran back to their trainers.

Ash turned to the man. "Why did you attack us?"

The man frowned. "What are you talking about? Your Greninja attacked Blackie! We were searching for my Pokémon when you attacked us."

Ash thought back to a few moments back to when he had ordered a water pulse into a random bush. Did it hit Umbreon on accident?

He scratched his head sheepishly. "Heh, heh, oops; I'm sorry about that. I guess we weren't paying attention to where we were shooting weren't we Greninja?"

The frog, identical to Ash, scratched his head sheepishly. "Greninja" He called as he grunted an apology to the dark Pokémon.

"Hi, my name is Ash! This is Greninja, one of my friends here in Kalos." Ash extended his hand in salutations.

The young man smiled. "Adrian's the name. And this is my buddy Blackie."

Blackie yipped politely then motioned back towards the woods. "Um!"

Adrian suddenly snapped up, "You're right buddy, we got to find him!"

He turned to Ash, "Sorry friend, but we've got to go. One of my Pokémon has run off and I'm trying to find him. I've got to go now! See you!"

With that, trainer and Pokémon dashed off into the forest. Ash turned to his Greninja. "What was that all about?"

The frog gave a confused look and shrugged. Ash followed suit. "Aw well, I guess it was nothing. That trainer was strong though. I wonder if we'll meet him again, then we could engage him in a full battle. Maybe he'll become a rival just like Tierno and Sawyer; that would be epic, don't you think Greninja?"

"Greh!"

Ash scratched his head and pondered for a moment. "Hold on a sec, where's the narrator? Normally he starts talking right about now."

"Greninja..." The ninja frog shrugged.

* * *

"Pikachu, be patient or else I'll never finish untangling your fur!" The blonde haired girl commanded as she brushed the yellow mouse Pokémon.

"Pi!" he muttered as the brush seemed to yank on his fur. "Pikachu!"

Bonnie smiled. "Don't worry Pikachu it will all be over soon. Just stay with me for a few more minutes and you'll be good as new!"

The yellow mouse sighed and braced himself for more strokes. "Pika."

Standing nearby, Clement and Serena finished packing up their camp. Serena finished examining her GPS and turned to the blonde haired boy. "It's only a few more kilometers and we'll reach Vaniville."

The group had been journeying to Vaniville to celebrate Serena's sixteenth birthday and had taken a break for lunch and training. Ash had gotten all eight badges and was now focused solely on preparing for the Renaissance Conference, but had insisted that Serena's sixteenth birthday was an important milestone and she should celebrate it with family and friends…he had been unable to return to Kanto for his, so he insisted at least she should.

Unfortunately, their journey had been cut short with Ash insisting on going off alone to train, taking only Greninja with him. Now they were anxiously waiting for him to come back.

"I wonder where Ash went." She thought out loud.

"He's probably so caught up in his training he lost track of time." Bonnie guessed.

"Don't worry guys, I'm sure that he'll back be quite soon." Clement added.

"I hope so…" the honey blonde wished.

"Vui!" The trio turned around in surprise to see a brown fox Pokémon rushing towards them, anger and venom in its eyes. It looked like it was on a warpath. It glared at the trio and barked loudly.

"It's an Eevee!" Bonnie cried in excitement, "Aww! It's so cute!"

The Eevee didn't seem to like the word 'cute' as it glared at the younger girl. Opening its mouth, it charged a dark shadow ball towards the trio before letting it fly…not at the girls, but at the Pancham nearby. The Panda Pokémon cried out in terror and dove out of the way just before the dark sphere hit him. "Pan!" it cried out in surprise before summoning up its own Dark Pulse attack. To the Pancham's surprise, the Eevee smiled at the panda's aggression, preparing itself for the attack.

The Dark Pulse flew at the fox but the Eevee rolled out of with ease. It wiggled its butt at Pancham, taunting it. "Vui! Vui!"

Pancham was beyond angry. He hurled spheres of Dark Pulse and Hidden Power at the fox, but the quick moving fox merely danced around the attacks, using a combinations of rolls, flips, and Quick Attacks to evade the attacks with ease. To Serena, it almost looked like the Eevee was doing a showcase performance considering the coordinated movements to dodge.

Finally Pancham had enough. Summoning up whatever remaining energy he had left, he threw his arms into the air, causing a series of stone pillars to erupt from the ground. However, the lithe fox merely jumped on top of the pillars as if they were steps on a staircase, quite similar to Serena's previous performances with Delphox. But instead of finishing with a beautiful dance, this Eevee leaped off the final pillar. Its tail glowed silver as it hardened into a brutal Iron Tail. The trio gasped in surprise as the Pancham gulped nervously. The Eevee somersaulted in the air, slamming its tail upon the unfortunate Pancham. When the dust cleared, the panda lay on the ground, unmoving.

"Vui!" The fox yelled in victory before turning to the rest of the group, challenging them for another battle.

Clemont gasped in surprise. "That's impossible! No wild Eevee can learn Iron Tail?"

Bonnie giggled as she whispered to her Dedenne. "See Dedenne, this Eevee is not only cute, but is also quite strong, just like you."

"Nenene!" The hamster Pokémon exclaimed.

Serena ran up to her fainted Pancham. "Pancham, are you ok?"

The Panda opened its eyes and nodded, "Pan!"

Serena smiled. "That's great!"

She then turned towards the Eevee. "What is your business with us? You know you shouldn't attack other Pokémon like that."

"Vui! Vui!" The Pokémon glared, looking for a new victim. It scanned the group until it rested its eyes on the yellow rat. "Vui! Eevui!"

Pikachu jumped back, startled by the fox's challenge. "Pika?" It asked curiously.

Said Pokémon nodded. "Vui!"

"Pikachu, don't do this! You'll get hurt!" Bonnie cried, before adding, "And I just groomed you!"

But Pikachu hopped off Bonnie's shoulder and stood before the fox, almost grinning. "Pikachu!" He replied in confidence.

The Eevee started the battle with a speedy Quick Attack. However, to its surprise, Pikachu responded with an even faster Quick Attack, slamming the fox from behind. The fox, surprised by the strength of the rat, quickly spun around and let off a series of swift star attacks. However, yet again, Pikachu leaped and rolled with ease through his own Quick Attack, slamming his own Iron Tail into the startled Eevee.

Before the Eevee could respond further, Pikachu charged up his tail and fired off a powerful Thunderbolt. The powerful bolt of electricity struck the fox head on, knocking it out instantaneously. When the dust cleared, a blackened Eevee lay on the ground, looking more like an Umbreon than an Eevee. The trio let out a breath of relief. While the Eevee was pretty strong, it was no hope against a battle hardened Pikachu.

Pikachu slowly approached the weakened Eevee. "Pi?"

The fox slowly pulled itself onto its feet. "Vui…" It weakly moaned.

"There you are Eevee!"

The trio turned to see a young woman wearing a lilac blouse and white capris. She had a beige purse at her side and a sleek looking Espeon running at her side. The woman had slightly tanned skin with lilac hair and eyes. The Eevee looked at the woman and yipped in recognition of her. "Vui Vui!"

"Hey there buddy!" The woman smiled. "What are you doing here?"

"Vui! Vee eevui vui!" The fox attempted to explain, but the woman shook her head.

"The better question is why you were attacking that poor Pancham."

The Eevee slowly lowered its head in shame. "Eevee vui!"

"Not to me, say it to the people whose morning you ruined."

Serena raised her hands. "Oh no, it's nothing. You don't have to apologize."

"We were just waiting for a friend." Clemont added.

"He was sort of mean though," Bonnie pouted.

"Well," the woman replied, "I appreciate your sincerity, but this little guy needs to learn that he can't just run away from his trainer and attack strangers like that."

The fox slowly approached the group and bowed its head. "Vui vui."

Serena smiled. "It's alright, right Pancham?"

The Panda still was glaring at the Eevee before turning its head. "Pancham!"

"Pancham! Forgive him. He said he was sorry." Serena scolded.

Pikachu quickly rushed forward and began scolding the Pancham as well. After a minute, the Pancham slowly nodded. "Pan, Pancham."

"Good, now shake hands." The girl still held a serious gaze at her Pokémon.

Serena smiled as she watched the Pancham trod up to Eevee and raise its paw towards the Eevee, who hesitantly took it paw before they slowly shook it.

"That's better," the woman smiled before turning to the group, "I'm sorry about that. Buddy here is still quite young and hasn't been given much training besides just playing back at the ranch."

"Oh wow!" Bonnie cried, "Is he yours?"

The woman shook her head. "Nope, he belongs to a friend of mine. I'm sorry, my name is Ally, from Tojoh Falls." She said as she extended her hand to the group.

"My name is Serena!"

"I'm Clemont."

"I'm Bonnie…and…" Before anyone could react, the girl was kneeling on one knee before the woman. Taking her hand, the girl smiled. "You're a keeper! You look strong and so does your Espeon. Please take care of my brother!"

"Bonnie!" Clemont yelled in exasperation, his Aipom arm already in action.

"What? She's perfect! Promise you'll consider it."

Ally giggled. "Sorry Bonnie. You see, Buddy here is my boyfriend's Eevee."

The girl sighed. "Aww, oh well…we'll eventually find a wife for you big brother."

The blonde haired boy bowed in apology. "I'm so sorry about Bonnie. She's a bit passionate."

The lilac haired woman laughed. "It's alright Clemont. I think it's sort of cute. But I should get going, though."

She knelt down to the Eevee. "Now buddy, you're going to tell me where my boyfriend is. He ran off without telling me which way he went."

Serena giggled. "It sort of sounds like our friend."

"Oh really? What's his name?"

"Ash Ketchum, he's competing for the Kalos League." Serena explained.

The woman raised an eyebrow. "Oh is that so? Is he from Pallet Town?"

Bonnie nodded. "That's right! Do you know him?"

She shook her head. "No, but my little sister said she's met him before. Come to think of it, I think she harbored a crush on him for a while."

Serena gasped. Ash already had an admirer? "She did!?" The girl shrieked.

Ally raised her second eyebrow. "Oh…do you have one too? That's hilarious! But not anymore…my sister might have admired the guy, but I think she's moved on by now. Besides, it's unhealthy to obsess over someone who you just met for a few days."

Serena paled slightly. Bonnie giggled. "Actually that sounds like Serena! She met him at a summer camp and then she joined us a few years later."

"Oh is that so? Well, I wish you good luck. From what I've heard, that boy is denser than a super dense boy with a Pikachu." Ally scratched her chin thoughtfully, "Come to think of it…where did that phrase come from?"

The gang shrugged. Ally nodded. "Oh well, let's get going Espee, Buddy! If we hurry, we also might find Ruby and Sapphire. They're supposed to meet up with us as well."

With that, the lilac haired trainer ran off into the distance as the gang waved.

After a few minutes, a familiar black haired trainer walked into the clearing. "Hey guys, sorry I'm late!"

"Pikapi!" The mouse cried in glee as he jumped onto the boy's shoulder.

"Hey there Pikachu! Did you miss me?"

"Pika!"

Serena smiled at the interaction. Their close bond always captured her heart. "It's good to have you back Ash."

"What took you so long?" Bonnie complained.

Ash sheepishly scratched the back of his neck. "Well, we sort of ran into someone. There was this guy who had an Umbreon and Greninja accidentally hit the Umbreon on accident so we sort of got into a battle. Anyways, he said he was looking for a lost Pokémon but I hadn't seen him so he left."

"Oh, that must be Ally's boyfriend!" Bonnie exclaimed.

"Ally?"

"Yeah," Clemont explained. "While you were gone, we met an Eevee who knew Iron Tail. He attacked us, but Pikachu stopped him."

"Pikachu…" The Pikachu blushed at the attention.

"Anyways," he continued, "Ally found us and recognized the Eevee as her boyfriend's. So she took him back to go look for her boyfriend."

Ash cocked his head slightly. "Boyfriend?"

The group face palmed. "Yes, her boyfriend."

"Isn't that just a guy who is a friend?"

Serena's hopes plummeted. How dense could a guy get? "No, it's more than just that…how do I explain it?"

"Ooh…I can try! Let me try please!" Bonnie jumped up and down with excitement. However, before the lemon haired girl could finish, a robotic arm grabbed her from behind.

"That's enough Bonnie, we need to get going. This is a private matter that Ash needs to discover himself." The older brother chided as inventor and little sister walked or floated away.

The two watched the sibling duo march away. Ash turned to Serena awkwardly. "So Serena…could you explain it?"

The girl froze as her cheeks turned dark red. "Umm…you know what? It's not that important. We can talk about it later okay?"

To her relief, the boy nodded. "That's right! We need to get to your house for your birthday party."

He checked his shoulder to find his faithful mouse patiently waiting. "There you are Pikachu! You're here so often I sometimes forget you're here."

"Pikachu!" The mouse laughed in agreement.

* * *

Soon enough, the gang reached the hill overlooking the small town. Serena took in a death breath of fresh air. "Ah…it's great to be back!"

"Oh wow! Look big brother, it's so different from Lumiose City!" Bonnie exclaimed.

"It certainly is. It's quite smaller than where we grew up and it seems much calmer and quieter than the roar of Lumiose." Her brother observed.

"So this is where you lived…I like it." Ash commented.

"You do?" Serena asked.

"Yeah, it sorta reminds me of Pallet Town, minus the lab." Ash concluded, "Then again, it also reminds me of Twinleaf Town as well."

"Where's that Ash?" Bonnie asked.

"Oh, it's in the Sinnoh Region. Dawn lives there."

Serena froze. Dawn? That sounded like a girl's name. "Who's she Ash?"

"Ooh! Is she your girlfriend?" Bonnie giggled.

Ash scratched his head. "Umm…yeah I guess she is. She's a girl and my friend as well. But anyways, Dawn is a Coordinator I traveled with in the Sinnoh Region. Or is she a fashion designer now? I forget."

"Wow! It sounds like you were great friends!" Bonnie exclaimed.

"Yeah, we were. She was probably one of my closest friends. She had this Piplup who always got himself into trouble. But she probably was one of my greatest inspirations. Together we developed some of the greatest strategies and techniques I used back in the day. She was like that little sister I never had." Ash smiled as he reminisced from the past. "But never mind that now. We've got to get to Serena's house. I'm starving!"

The quartet laughed as they walked down the path towards the small town. Serena smiled as she greeted old neighbors and fellow townspeople who recognized the daughter of the Rhyhorn Racer. After a few minutes of walking, the group reached the modest two story house. As she opened the gate, she was quickly tackled by a large powerful rock type Pokémon. "Hey Rhyhorn, it's great to see you!"

"Rhyhorn!" the spikes Pokémon responded, licking the girl's face.

"Hey, stop it! Cut it out!" the flattened girl protested in vain.

"Serena?" A middle aged woman's head peered out from an upper window. "Oh great! You made it!"

The girl grunted under the pressure of the heavy mount. "Yeah, I made it, but I'm not so sure how much longer I can last!"

"Oh Serena, it seems you've forgotten how to stop a Rhyhorn." Grace chuckled as she brought to fingers to her lips and blew a shrill whistle. Almost immediately, the Rhyhorn stopped licking its trainer's daughter and removed itself from the girl.

"Thanks mom!" Serena called as she used a handkerchief to wipe the Pokémon slobber off her face. "Good Rhyhorn."

"Aww, it's so cute!" the younger girl gushed as she leaped forward and tackled the rock type into a hug.

"Denene!" her little hamster agreed.

"Well don't just stand out there lingering, come on inside." Grace called. "I'll be with you in a sec!"

Serena led the small party into the house and into an already decorated parlor. The girl's mother soon appeared from the kitchen. "Serena, the cake will be ready soon, but just a reminder, your cousin is coming sometime this afternoon."

"Really?" Serena tilted her head curiously. "Which one? Virgil, Davy, Celia, or Adrian?"

"Adrian, and he's supposedly bringing company."

"What sort of company?"

The mother giggled to herself. "After two years, we finally get to meet the special somebody he got together with."

"You mean Adrian has a girlfriend?"

Grace smiled. "Yep, and from what your cousin Celia has been telling me, they're perfect for each other."

Serena sighed. "Congratulations to him."

Just then, a faint knock was heard at the door. Grace clasped her hands in glee. "That must be them! Oh I can't wait to meet her!"

"Mom! You're embarrassing me!" the red faced girl yelled as she ran towards the door. When she opened it, Ash was surprised to see a familiar young man wearing a blue sleeveless vest holding a very familiar grumpy fox with a red bow on its head.

"Hey Cousin, happy birthday!" Adrian pleaded as he held up the pouting Eevee.

*With the sudden introduction of Adrian, Serena's Cousin, how will our heroes' adventure change? Stay tuned to find out more!*

Adrian peered into the sky. "Who is that narrator guy?"

Serena shrugged, "Honestly, I don't really know. You just get used to him."

* * *

Ok guys, let me know what you think. This fic is based on certain assumptions:

1\. This happens before Emerald Knights.

2\. Grace Yvonne has siblings, thus Serena has cousins, the non OCs being Virgil and Davy from the Eevee Rescue Squad in Unova. Virgil will be making an appearance later on into the fic.

3\. Ash is completely dense and really has no feelings for any of his companions that he is aware of. However, as noted in the beginning: this is an Amourshipping fic. It's not the main theme, but it's implied.

4\. Ally is Anabel of the Battle Frontier's older sister. Anabel will be playing a minor role, but again, this is an Amourshipping fic, not Abilityshipping, even though it's probably my favorite.

I'll be giving more information and tidbits as we go on. Please review and favorite and or follow this story. **If you read or are reading** **Emerald Knights** **, this is a necessary fic to read.** I will be doing a lot of explaining in this fic that I will not be doing in  Emerald Knights.

Anyways, the next chapter coming up is True Colors, so keep on a lookout for that. Whi-two's got a whole new twist to her story and for once, Lack-two is playing the naïve one.

May the Force of the Lord God Almighty be with you Always!

UCCMaster


	2. Chapter 2

Hey Everyone! UCCMaster here!

Here's the second chapter of my new main story. Wow! I already got 229 views within two days of posting! Well, that's the popularity you get when you post fics about Ash's adventures. Write about Manga? A little bit of popularity. Write about PMD? Lots of popularity. Write about legendaries such as Latios and Latias without Ash in it? ...not so much popularity. Write an Ash Betrayed fic? I cannot believe the popularity those get...I just can't stand them. Don't get me started on Harem fics either. Anyways, enough on my ranting. Enjoy the next chapter.

I do not own Pokémon or **True-InTha-Blue** 's ideas and inspiration that led to the writing of this fic. Just wanted to say I did get permission from him/her (not so sure) to use ideas and themes used in the fic From One Side to Another.

* * *

Serena gazed at the Eevee in front of her, the fox glaring back at her. "Oh, hi Adrian. Um...thanks for coming."

Adrian raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Umm...ok."

It was just her luck that Ash and the rest of the group had now arrived. Ash grinned. "Hey Adrian, it's good to see you! What are you doing here?"

The man grinned. "Hey Ash, fancy seeing you here. Well, I guess I forgot to mention that I was coming here. I didn't know you were going to be at Cousin Serena's birthday party."

Grace smiled. "Hello Adrian, how are you?"

"Pretty good actually, except Buddy here decided to run away from me. Thankfully Ally found him trashing some poor trainers and stepped in to break up the fight."

"Speaking of Ally," Grace continued, "Where is that beautiful young woman I've heard so much about?"

The man froze. "She's not here?" He slowly turned around to find nobody standing behind him. "That's odd, she was here just a minute ago."

He glanced down at the squirming Eevee. "Buddy, do you know where Ally went?"

"Eevee!" The fox protested, shaking its furry head as it tried to break free of the man's grasp.

"Heh, heh." The brown haired trainer laughed nervously. "I guess she disappeared when we were heading here. Don't worry, she'll turn up. She has the address anyways."

Grace and Serena face palmed at their nephew/cousin's forgetfulness.

"Anyways, come inside. I'll keep an eye out for them and will let them in later." Grace decided, gesturing for the cousins to enter.

"Thanks Auntie Grace." Adrian followed the family into the house, still keeping a firm hold on the Eevee.

*It's Serena's Birthday and her cousin Adrian has just arrived with a very grumpy Eevee. How will our heroes respond?*

"That's weird, you'd think that he'd wait for this evening or something." Adrian observed.

"Serena, who's that?" Grace asked curiously.

"Oh, that's the narrator. He seems to narrate people's lives randomly." Serena explained.

"You've got a weird sense of friends, cousin."

The group entered the parlor where Clemont and Bonnie sat, chatting quietly amongst themselves.

"Clemont, Bonnie, and Ash, this is Adrian, Serena's cousin." Grace introduced.

The man smiled. "It's great to meet you all. Sorry for being late. This little guy," he gestured to the squirming fox, "tried to run away from me and I had to end chase him down."

Clemont's eyes widened. "Hold on a sec, I recognize that Eevee. He's the one who attacked us."

"That's right big brother," Bonnie nodded.

"Oh, oops, sorry about that." Adrian hung his head in shame. "You see, Buddy here is very nervous and is very reluctant to work with a trainer other than me."

"What do you mean Adrian?" Serena asked curiously, though she had a feeling where this was going.

"Well Serena, Buddy was supposed to be your birthday present. When I asked your mom what your team was, she told me you only had two Pokémon and not a single Eevee." Adrian explained. "Since I was in the area, I decided to give you one of newly hatched Eevees as a present."

"But..." The man scratched his chin. "He doesn't seem to like you."

Buddy seemed to support his point by make a cute pouting face. "Vui!"

The man sighed. "It's alright. I can switch him out and get you another one if you'd like."

Serena thought for a moment. True, the Eevee seemed overly aggressive and violent. He had just gone on a warpath and brutally defeated her Pancham. But at the same time, she was mesmerized by the Eevee's skill and flexibility, the way the fox seemed to dance through attack after attack. She could already picture performances in which the Eevee would leap through hoops of flame and climb steeples of stone. As she weighed the pros and cons she realized one thing. She could work on forming a bond with the Eevee, but she couldn't just get a replacement who probably lacked the skill and passion this one had.

"Adrian, I'll take him."

The man's eyes widened. "You sure? I can always switch him with one back home."

Serena's resolve was firm. "Yes, it will be a lot of work, but I want him. I'll prove that I can handle someone who's a little rough."

"A little rough is exaggerating, but if you're sure, then, I'll let you keep him." Adrian nodded, handing the Eevee into the girl's outstretched arms.

Serena held the fox gently in her arms and smiled at it. "Hi, there! I think we got off on the wrong foot. I'm Serena and I'm your new trainer."

The fox stopped squirming and took a moment to gaze into the girl's eyes, as if trying to read her. Adrian smiled. "He technically doesn't have a name but we call him Buddy."

"Buddy huh? Do you like that name?" Serena asked.

Buddy stared at the girl before shaking its head. "Vui, vee."

"Oh, then what should I call you?"

"Eevee!" The fox yipped.

"Oh, just Eevee then?"

"Vui! Eevee!"

Serena smiled softly. This wouldn't so bad after all. "Well then Eevee, let me tell you about myself. I'm a Pokémon Performer, meaning I try to bring out the beauty in my team and earn Princess Keys. I already have all three so I'm going to compete in the Master Class Performances. My dream is to become Kalos Queen. Doesn't that sound like fun?"

The fox quirked his head in confusion. Beauty? What about battles? "Vui! Eevui!"

Serena glanced at Adrian for an explanation. "You see Serena, I didn't realize you had decided to do Performances. Bud...err...Eevee here is a battler. He lives and breathes battles. You two might not be the most compatible match."

Serena frowned slightly. That would definitely be a barrier in their bond. "Well Eevee, I'm sure we can also take time to battle as well. Just because you show off beauty doesn't mean that you can't be strong as well. I was watching your battle with Pancham and you were very agile and fought very much like a Performance Pokémon."

"Vui?"

"Yeah, when you leaped and danced about, I train Pancham and Delphox to fight just like that."

"Vui, vui?"

Serena gasped. "Oh that's right! I need to let them out of their pokeballs."

"That can wait for now." The gang turned to see Grace with three figures behind her. "The rest of the guests have arrived. Why don't you guys all get comfortable? Cake will be ready in a few minutes."

"That's awesome!" Ash grinned. "I'm starved."

The group laughed slightly. "Well, I'm starved too." The group turned to the newcomers.

The first one was a girl who looked about ten. Her face was slightly covered by red and white hair and also had bright emerald eyes. She wore a red blouse with black riding shorts.

The second one was a boy who looked about the same age. He had a similar complexion but he wore a blue and black zigzagged shirt with matching riding shorts. Most distinctive about him was a white beanie over his head.

The last one was a very familiar woman with lilac hair and a deep frown. Her glare was directed at a certain young man who had rushed off and didn't even notice her absence. Almost immediately, Adrian's face paled as he realized Giratina reincarnate had come for him. "Um...hey Ally, glad you made it."

"Yes Adrian, I'm very glad I made it after searching high and low through Vaniville for the twins." The woman smiled, but it never reached her cold lilac eyes.

The man gulped. "Um...heh, about that. Did I mention you're absolutely gorgeous today?"

"No you haven't, but now that you did, I feel _so_ much better about letting you get it." Alley glanced at the Espeon at her side. "Espie, you mind teaching your trainer a thing or two about abandoning his girlfriend?"

"Espie!" The gray fox nodded as her eyes glowed faintly. A faint glow surrounded the young man as he began to levitate in the air. "Blackie, you mind helping me out?" He called in distress.

A pokeball opened from his belt and flashed out a laughing Umbreon. "Umbre!"

Adrian rolled his eyes. "Great, even Blackie is against me. I'm guessing if I let out Nymphia or Thunders that they won't help me either."

"Umbreon!" Blackie agreed as it moved towards the Psychic type, licking its cheek affectionately.

"Aww! That's so cute!" Bonnie gushed as she rushed over to the two Eeveevolutions.

Serena glanced back at Eevee. "Are they always like this?"

The fox grinned and nodded. "Vui!"

"Yep, Buddy's right!" The younger boy laughed. "Anyways, I'm Ruby and this is my sister Sapphire."

"Hi!" Sapphire greeted.

"How do you know Adrian?" Serena asked curiously. She had never met the two twins.

"You see, we just got our Pokémon and Adrian offered to travel with us around Kalos." Ruby explained.

Ash smiled. "Sorta reminds me of Brock, a friend of mine who travelled with me when I first started my journey."

Sapphire giggled. "Do you mean Brock the former Pewter City Gym Leader?"

Ash nodded. "Yep, you know him?"

Ruby nodded. "Yeah, we met him just before we went off on our journey. He was working as a doctor in a Pokémon Center near Fuchsia City. He had this really cool Croagunk."

Ash laughed. "That's Brocko alright."

"Ok! Ok, I'm sorry! I'm sorry for leaving you behind! Can you please let me go?"

The gang turned to see Adrian hanging upside down in front of the lilac haired woman. "Hmm..." Ally pondered. "Ok, but you'd better not forget me next time. Also keep a better eye on the twins ok? They're your responsibility."

"Right...ok. But it's hard to keep track of them. I'm not psychic."

"You have Espie."

"Yeah, but she prefers to hang around you. Come to think of it, so does Blackie."

"Just keep them in your visual sight ok?"

"Alright. I promise to keep the twins in my sight at all times."

"Good. Espie you can release him."

"Espie!" With a thud, the young man landed on the ground...hard.

Grace peeked in from the kitchen. "Everything alright?"

Adrian rubbed his head but gave a thumbs up. "Everything's fine Aunt Grace."

"Is the cake ready?" Sapphire chirped.

"Sapph, you know that's impolite." Ruby scolded her.

"Why? I'm hungry!"

"We shouldn't be barging in on our hosts ok?"

"Hmm...I'm still hungry through." The girl pouted.

Adrian laughed. "Ok guys, it's alright. I got a few snacks left in my bag."

"Or you can eat cake!" Grace interrupted. "It's ready!"

Ash and Sapphire grinned. "Yes! Let's eat!"

* * *

To Serena's relief, the rest of the party had gone without much embarrassment. The cake was wonderful and Bonnie hadn't proposed to anyone yet. Serena found out that Adrian had been supervising Ruby and Sapphire's training, offering tips and helping them out at times. In exchange, they would help him out with errands and other tasks he gave them. Which was probably very helpful considering his career.

"Vui?"

Serena noticed the brown fox had walked up to the door and was pawing at it. "Do you want to go outside?"

"Vui! Vui!"

The honey haired girl giggled. "Alright then." She opened the backdoor and entered the large enclosure her mom used to practice her racing, Eevee following at her feet. Eevee ran around the enclosure a few times, exploring a bit before discovering a small battlefield. "Vui!"

Serena joined her Eevee at the field before understanding what he wanted. That's right, Eevee loved battling and he probably wanted to see whether or not she was a strong trainer.

"You want to see my Pokémon don't you?"

"Vui!"

"Alright then, come on out!" She threw two pokeballs into the air, revealing Delphox and Pancham. Delphox gave the Eevee a queer look then stared at her trainer for an explanation.

Pancham on the other hand recognized the troublemaker immediately. "Pan, Pancham!"

Eevee giggled. "Vui, Eevee!" It declared proudly.

The panda stared at Serena in utter betrayal. "Pan, Pancham!"

"I know Pancham, but Eevee was a birthday present to me from my cousin. Could you please try to get along with him? You got along with Cheapen eventually."

"Del!" Serena turned towards her starter, who smiled as she approached the small fox. She remembered being a small fox and felt as though the two would get along just fine. "Del, Delphox!"

"Vui! Eevee!" Eevee seemed to be friendly for now. "Eevui?"

"Hey there you went!" Serena turned to see Ash and the rest of the group had just entered the enclosure.

"What are you doing here Serena?" Bonnie asked.

"Eevee wanted to get some fresh air." Serena smiled.

Ruby scoffed. "More like he wanted some fresh battling."

"Would you cut that out Ruby?" Sapphire growled. "I think he's perfectly fine loving to battle."

"And this is coming from the Coordinator wannabe."

"Shut up wimpy trainer."

"Stop it both of you!" Alley interposed herself. "Although Ruby does have a point. I think Eevee would love to battle someone. Perhaps you should challenge someone."

"Ooh, she can battle me!" Sapphire volunteered.

Serena thought for a moment. Battle with a girl who looked like a battle maniac? To her surprise, and blushes too, Ash put his hand on her shoulder. "Go ahead Serena. Show Eevee that you're strong."

The girl nodded. "Ok then Sapphire, I accept your challenge."

Clemont stood at the side of the field. "Alright then, I'll referee."

The two girls took their positions on either side of the field. "This is a one on one battle between Serena Yvonne of Vaniville and Sapphire. The match will be over when one Pokémon can no longer battle."

"You ready Serena?" Sapphire grinned.

"Yeah, I can do this!" Serena responded, trying to sound super enthusiastic.

"Battle begin!"

"Flare! Let's go!" The younger girl called, revealing a young Flareon.

Serena frowned. Flareon was the evolved form of Eevee and most likely Flareon also came from Adrian, so she was bound to be strong. "Ok then Eevee, let's do this!" She called.

"Serena, Eevee should know Swift, Protect, Iron Tail, Quick Attack, and Shadow Ball." Alley called out from the stands.

The girl nodded. That was a pretty good moveset, then again, her cousin always did raise powerful Eevees, or so she heard. "Ok then Eevee, use Quick Attack!"

Eevee charged in a curved line towards the Flareon, however Sapphire was ready. "Flare, let's use that new move! Double Team!"

The Eevee charged through Flareon, only to discover it was merely an illusion. In fact, about four Flareons seemed to be running around the poor fox. Serena clenched her fists. "Eevee, use Swift!"

The fox spat out a series of stars at the fire foxes, causing them to vanish. "Good Eevee!" Serena cheered. "Now use Iron Tail!"

Eevee charged towards the remaining Flareon and readied his tail. "Flare, respond with your own Iron Tail!"

Iron Tail met Iron Tail, but unfortunately, the Flareon was a tad bit stronger than Eevee and promptly flung the brown fox back towards Serena.

"Eevee!" Serena cried.

* * *

"This isn't good." Bonnie muttered from the stands.

"Sapphire is not pushover, trust me." Ruby agreed.

"I thought you would be cheering for your sister?" Alley asked.

"Nah, I've seen Sapphire battle plenty of times. I want to see this underdog...err...under fox win this match against the big bad Flare."

"Ok..." Bonnie muttered, "I guess that makes sense."

"Denene!"

* * *

"Hmm...Looks like all that training finally paid off." Adrian observed.

"Well, Flareon is the evolved form of Eevee, so it's evolution versus preevoultion." Alley added.

"Yeah, plus Flareon is Leafia's pup. She most likely inherited her natural strength." Adrian froze. "Hold a sec, whose pup is Eevee again?"

Alley thought for a moment. "I don't quite remember. Both Flare and Aqua were Leafia and Glacia's pups, then we gave Titan and Fei's pups to the new trainers. Blackie and Espie's eggs haven't hatched yet and Nymphia and Thunders haven't gotten serious yet. Showers and Booster's pups hatched a long time ago. So that leaves Eevee as..."

The two gasped. "Oh dang." Adrian muttered. "I've got a lot of explaining to do."

"Let's hope it doesn't get to that." Alley sighed.

"Looking at how Flare is throwing Eevee around, it's going to happen."

"Is he even aware that he knows it?"

"I'm pretty sure. Egg moves are very clear from the beginning." Adrian muttered as he resumed watching the battle, Pokeball ready to interrupt the battle.

* * *

Meanwhile, back on the field Serena felt like she had completely failed. No matter what she tried, the Eevee couldn't get past the Flareon's Iron Tail and Double Team.

"Vui!" The fox landed smack in front of Serena. The teen bent down to the fox's eye line. "Eevee, I'm sorry. I'm failing you as a trainer."

"Vui!" The fox leaped to its feet. "Eevui!" There was no way he was going to let Serena lose. If she wasn't strong enough, he'd make her strong enough for him.

"Eevee?" Serena asked in astonishment.

"Vui! Eevui!" The Eevee pointed at itself, then back at her. "Vui!"

"You're saying that you trust me?"

"Vui!" If the nervous girl could feel that he trusted her, then she could be confident again. Confidence was everything to Eevee.

A light returned to Serena as she stood back up. If Eevee still trusted her after being tossed around the field due to her poor judgment, then she needed to step up her game. "Alright then Eevee," she called, "Let's do this!"

"Eevee!" The fox yipped in acknowledgement.

"Now use Swift at the ground!" The fox spat a series of stars at the ground, obscuring it from view. "Now use multiple Shadow Balls!"

Before Flare could respond, several dark spheres flew towards the fire type, forcing it to switch to a more defensive stance. "Flare, we can't keep dodging these forever! Use Double Team into Flame Charge!"

Flare nodded, splitting itself into several copies then all of them leaping into several powerful flaming dashes towards Eevee. At that moment, it appeared as though Flare had the battle under control.

"Eevee, use Protect!"

Flare and Sapphire's eyes widened as the red fox slammed head on into the glowing field set up before the other fox. Before Sapphire could react, Serena had already called out the next command. "Now use Shadow Ball!"

"Vui!" the fox yelled in response as it began to charge up an attack, which was oddly colored for a Shadow Ball attack.

* * *

Adrian stood up, releasing Blackie and Espie in the process. "Here it comes. Get ready!"

"Espeon!" "Umbreon!" The twin foxes yipped as their eyes glowed faintly.

* * *

Flareon's eyes widened as the Eevee charged a very surprising attack, causing her to shut her eyes and brace herself just as powerful beam of destructive energy was unleashed from the smaller fox's mouth.

Clemont gasped as he recognized the attack. "No way! That's Hyper Beam!"

* * *

When the smoke cleared, Serena could make out Eevee panting hard. But she currently was more worried about the poor Flareon. Most Pokémon could handle Hyper Beams, but rarely at point blank range. Serena worried that her surprise Eevee had done permanent damage. However, when she peered into the cloud of dust and smoke, she was surprised to find the Flareon surrounded by what appeared to be a Protect shield and half a dozen Light Screens, which probably soaked up most of the damage. Despite that, the Flareon inside was clearly knocked out, whether from the damage or the sheer fact that an Eevee used Hyper Beam.

Turning to the side of the field, Serena noticed Adrian observing the scene, his Espeon and Umbreon standing next to him with their eyes glowing. It made sense now. Adrian had somehow foreseen the attack and ordered the two Eeveevolutions to protect Flare from the brunt of the damage.

All eyes slowly turned to Adrian, who chuckled nervously. "I think I owe you all an explanation."

*With the sudden revelation of Serena's new Eevee's powerful moveset, our heroes turn to the mysterious trainer Adrian for an explanation. How did this Eevee learn Hyper Beam? What awaits our heroes next? Stay tuned to find out.*

"Hey!" Adrian protested. "I'm not mysterious!"

"Yes you are!" a chorus of parents, trainers, and friends disagreed.

"Damn you narrator!" the trainer muttered under his breath as Blackie and Espie chuckled at his disposition.

* * *

So, how'd you like it? I know, I know, I gave an Eevee Hyper Beam, a move that technically can't be learned by Eevee. But as you noticed in my Emerald Knights story, I have a series of Fakemon Eevees. One of them can learn Hyper Beam and that will be explained in the next chapter.

Again, I love your support by reading and favoring the fic, but please, **leave reviews with your opinions, ideas, and critiques**. I live for those and not so much for the views and followers. Oh, and while you're here, give  Emerald Knights a read for the future story of Sapphire Redding and Flare.

Anyways, May the Force of the Lord God Almighty be with you Always!

UCCMaster


	3. Chapter 3

Hey Everyone! UCCMaster here!

Here's the third chapter of my new main story. It's been over a week since I last posted. Sorry about that, I just discovered they have Pokémon Adventures Manga in the library. If you haven't read it yet, go! It's so much better than the games or anime. Anyways, enjoy the next chapter.

I do not own Pokémon or **True-InTha-Blue** 's ideas and inspiration that led to the writing of this fic. Just wanted to say I did get permission from him/her (not so sure) to use ideas and themes used in the fic From One Side to Another.

* * *

The group stared at Adrian and his crew in shock, not believing what they had seen. An Eevee had used Hyper Beam, an ultra-powerful move typically wielded by large and powerful Pokémon, not used by Eevee or any of its evolutions.

"I probably should explain how Serena's Eevee knew that attack shouldn't I?" Adrian guessed.

The group nodded. Adrian pondered a moment before looking at the field around him. "Well, might as well take a seat. This might take a bit of explaining."

*With an unexpected moveset, Serena's Eevee has startled our heroes, who anxiously await an explanation. What new adventures will come from this startling news?*

"I swear, this narrator guy is getting on my nerves." Adrian muttered under his breath.

"Who is that Adrian?" Alley asked.

"He's the narrator. For some reason he always talks as though we're in some sort of TV show or something."

"I like him, he's funny!" Sapphire decided.

"Sure whatever you say," her brother face palmed.

The group soon sat down around the bleachers, facing the two older trainers.

Adrian cleared his throat before beginning. "You see, I'm from a different region known as the Evo Islands, otherwise known as the Southern Islands."

"Woah, I've never heard of that region." Ash exclaimed.

"It's more of a series of closely connected islands than an actual region. We don't even have an official Pokémon League." Ally explained, "But the unique part of the region is that it's the ancestral homeland of the Evolution Pokémon: Eevee."

"Really?" The group exclaimed in surprise.

Adrian nodded. "Yep, all Eevees are ancestrally from the Evo Islands. With the climate being the original perfect climate for Eevee, Eeveevolutions from the islands are naturally stronger than the mainland counterparts. Serena's Eevee is from the Islands and thus learned Hyper Beam as an egg move."

"Wow! That's so cool. Eevee, you're from the Evo Islands?" Ash gasped.

"Vui!"

"That's amazing! Serena, did you know about that?" Bonnie asked.

"Well I knew a little bit about it. I still have my pendant." Serena explained shyly, pulling out a wooden pendant carved in the shape of an Eevee tail.

Clemont examined the pendant with an inventor's eye. "Amazing craftsmanship! The cuts are so precise and curved."

"You see, as a descendant of the people of the Evo Islands, Serena has certain privileges that come from her heritage, including the exclusive right to catch an Eevee in the Evo Islands, access to the sole transport between to the Evo Islands, and a unique pendant marking her as a member of the Yibu tribes."

"Exclusive rights?" The blonde haired boy raised an eyebrow.

Adrian nodded, "Yes, I'll explain it another time. But the Evo Islands is a restricted region with several laws protecting the Pokémon living there. As a descendant of the Evo Islands, Serena could catch a wild Eevee from the Evo Islands without being arrested for poaching."

"Wow! You're so lucky Serena!" Bonnie exclaimed.

"Thanks Bonnie, but it's nothing that special. It means nothing here in Kalos." The girl protested. However, Ash didn't agree with her.

"What are you talking about Serena? Your cousin just gave you an Eevee! Isn't that super special? Eevee are rare Pokémon that are hard to catch. Serena you're special in so many ways." Ash grinned.

Serena's cheeks flushed red. "Really, you think so?"

"Yes Serena. You're an amazing person." Ash declared, "You're not only on the route to becoming Kalos Queen, but you're also from a rich heritage which gives you access to a powerful Eevee who loves to battle. You're amazing performer and now you're on your way to becoming a powerful trainer as well."

"Wow thanks Ash," she managed, "That really means a lot to me."

Adrian smirked. "Wow Serena, I didn't know you had a boyfriend."

"He's not my boyfriend!" The girl protested.

Ash just stared at the girl in confusion. "I thought I was."

The girl shrieked in surprise, leaving Alley and Bonnie giggling. Ash, dense as ever, scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "You alright Serena? You startled us there." He asked as he placed his hand on the girl's shoulder, which only resulted on the girl blushing even harder.

Adrian sighed. "I see what's going on here. Ash, do you know what a boyfriend is?"

"Isn't it a boy who is a friend?" Ash asked.

The young man chuckled. "Ash my friend, that's a boy (space) friend."

"What's a boy (space) friend?"

"It's a boy who is your friend. There's a small space the keeps them from what Serena was referring to: a boy (no space) friend." Adrian explained.

"Adrian, I think you confused him more." Alley face palmed as the twins giggled behind her.

"Oh Adrian, leave it to you to make things more confusing than they already were." Sapphire giggled.

The older teen sighed. "Never mind. I'll explain it another time Ash ok?"

Ash nodded. "Alright Adrian, but I wanted to ask you something."

"What can I do for you Ash?"

Ash grinned. "Will you battle me? I want to know what it's like to battle a trainer from the Evo Islands."

Serena gasped. "Are you sure Ash? My cousin Adrian is really strong. He might not be the best person to battle against."

"But Serena, you already got a battle today, now I want to battle him. Plus, that last fight wasn't technically a battle."

"You referring to our skirmish in the forest between Greninja and Blackie?"

"Yeah, so I want to finish that battle, except against Pikachu."

"Pikachu!" The yellow rat copied his trainer's fist pump.

The adult smirked. "Alright then Ash, how can I say no to that?"

He glanced over to Serena's mother who had just come out of the house carrying a tray of drinks. "Aunt Grace, does it matter what condition the battlefield is in when we finish battling?"

"Umm..." The woman stared at her nephew in surprise. "What do you mean?"

"Well, Ash and I were going to have a battle and I need to know how much damage I can do to the field. Would you like roughed up a little, no damage, or is it ok for us to go all out?"

"Well, you can rough it up a little. It's pretty packed down though with all my Rhyhorn training though." The woman explained.

"Alright then. Thanks Aunt Grace!" The teen grinned. "You ready Ash?"

Ash took his position across from the older teen. "You bet!"

Pikachu jumped down from the boy's shoulder while Blackie strolled onto the field. Adrian grinned. "Alright then, let's battle!"

Just then, a familiar girlfriend cleared her throat. When the two trainers turned towards her, she threw up her hands. "I can't believe you guys forgot an important part of the battle!"

Ash glanced at his opponent, a queer look in his eyes. "What's she talking about?"

"Hmm…" the older boy scratched his chin. "I'm not sure. Let's see here, what are we missing? We got the trainers, that's Ash and me; we got the Pokémon, Pikachu and Blackie; and we got the field as well, thanks to Aunt Grace; so what are we missing?"

From the sidelines, Sapphire and Ruby giggled at their teacher's ignorance and forgetfulness while Espie (paw) palmed. Alley groaned. "You forgot the referee!"

"Oh right…heh, heh." Adrian scratched his head negligently before gesturing to Alley. "Can you ref please?"

The girl sighed. "Do I have to do everything for you?"

The boy scratched his head nervously. "Please?"

"Fine! This is a one on one match between Adrian of the Evo Islands and Ash of Kanto. The battle will be over when one or both Pokémon are unable to battle." The lilac haired girl announced.

"Alright then Ash, you get first move."

The raven haired boy grinned. "Right! Pikachu, use Thunderbolt!"

"Pika CHUU!" The mouse cried as he released a powerful bolt of lightning.

The electricity arced towards the black fox, however the young man didn't seem fazed. "Protect"

A circular barrier blocked the thunderbolt with ease, leaving the moonlight Pokémon unharmed. Ash grinned. "Ok, so that's how you want to play. Pikachu use Quick Attack!"

The rat grinned, leaping into a quick dash directly towards the Umbreon. However, the black Pokémon's trainer didn't seem to respond at all this time. Without any resistance, Pikachu slammed head-on into the Blackie, who merely shrugged off the attack.

"Seriously? I thought you were strong." Adrian yawned.

Ash inhaled sharply at the taunt.

* * *

"I don't get it, why isn't Adrian fighting back?" Serena asked. She knew her cousin was strong, but to merely stand and take Pikachu's attacks was arrogant.

Alley was observing the battle closely. "I think Adrian is trying to get Ash to battle harder. He's not impressed with Ash's current battle style and wants to see more effort before he'll actually engage."

"Ash isn't giving this fight his all...which is surprising. Normally Ash would charge head on in with some strategy, but Pikachu isn't even putting that much effort into the battle." Clemont observed.

"Ash," Serena muttered softly, "what are you trying to do?"

* * *

Ash clenched his teeth at the remark. He knew he needed to up his game. He originally hadn't been certain how strong Serena's cousin was. His friend Alley had said the Evo Islands didn't have a Pokémon League, so he was worried about Adrian's actual strength. But now that he could see that the Umbreon was tougher than he had originally anticipated, he knew it was time to get some real attacks in.

"Alright then Pikachu, let's show him what we can do! Use a real Quick Attack!"

The mouse grinned, now know he didn't need to hold back. With a sudden burst of speed, the mouse dashed into a blurring zigzag towards the black fox. Just before he reached him, Ash called out the next command. "Now use Electro Ball!"

The mouse charged a powerful ball of electricity before hurling it at the stationary fox. Ash grinned: this was perfect.

Adrian grinned. This was the battling style he had been waiting for. "Feint Attack!"

With a surprising burst of speed, Blackie vanished from sight, causing the ball of electricity to crash against the ground. Before Pikachu could respond, the fox had slammed its head against rat, slamming into the ground. Ash groaned internally, that Umbreon was fast. Plus he should have known it was a trap. Adrian definitely struck him as a deception type. He needed to do something about that speed. "Pikachu, hang in there are use Thunderbolt!

Before Blackie could respond, Pikachu unleashed a powerful Thunderbolt onto the fox, striking it instantly. Ash beamed when the attack connected. "That's great Pikachu, now follow up with Iron Tail!"

"Blackie, show him your own Iron Tail."

The two Pokémon met in the center of the field, iron clanging against iron, and butt against butt. The two crossed tails several more times before the Umbreon managed the push back the Pikachu. Ash nodded. "Alright then Pikachu, use Volt Tackle head on!"

"Dark Pulse!"

"Pika, Pika, and Pika!" the rat muttered to himself as he sprinted towards the fox at high speed, electricity flowing around him. At the same time, the fox let loose a powerful beam of swirling black energy from his mouth. "Umbre!"

The energy beam and electric charger grew ever closer; however, before the energy clashed, a small cube landed in the center of the field.

"What the…" Adrian responded before the cube exploded into a smoke screen, covering the field.

As Ash, Adrian, and the rest covered their faces, they heard a startled "Pika" and "Umbre". The smoke cleared to reveal a familiar Meowth shaped hot air balloon. In its talons, Pikachu and Blackie squirmed.

"Not you guys!" Ash shouted in dismay as the trio cackled.

"Prepare for trouble; that goes to you too!"

"And make it double; your Pokémon go tootle-loo!"

"To protect the world from devastation!"

"To unite all people within our nation!"

"To denounce the evils of truth and love!"

"To extend our reach to the stars above!"

"Jessie,"

"James,"

"Team Rocket blasts off at the speed of light!"

"Surrender now or prepare for a foxy fight!"

"Meowth! That's right!"

"Team Rocket, here in Kalos?" Adrian's raised a suspicious eyebrow.

"That's right new Twerp! Team Rocket claims this area as ours!" Jessie retorted.

"You're associated with these guys Ash?" Alley asked.

"They're Team Rocket, a bunch of bad guys—."

"Yeah, yeah, I know who they are." Adrian interrupted, "I was asking if these guys had some sort of vendetta against you. I wasn't aware of Team Rocket's presence in Kalos."

"You see, Team Rocket has been after Ash's Pikachu from the start of our journey. They've been up to no good at all." Serena explained, before noticing Adrian's fist closing tightly. "Why is he so riled up?"

"Serena," her mother explained, "Team Rocket is the main reason why the Evo Islands is closed off the general public. Adrian was part of a major movement to remove their poaching operations from the islands."

"Oh my!" Bonnie cried, "That's horrible!"

"Hey stop talking amongst yourselves!" Jessie hollered from the balloon, "It's rude to talk about people in front of their faces!"

"Jessie, I think we should be getting away now!" James advised, noticing the burning anger from the older trainer.

"Ash, you and I are getting our Pokémon and that's a fact."

Ash grinned. "Right! Talonflame let's go!"

"Jolteon, take the field!"

A yellow fox with white spiked fur joined the bird. "Nice Jolteon!" Ash complimented.

"A Jolteon is a necessary part of any Eevee trainer's team." He responded as the fox yipped.

"Now, Flame Charge!"

"Thunderbolt!"

Just as the falcon charged towards the balloon, Adrian's electric fox unleashed a powerful thunderbolt, almost as large as Pikachu's signature bolt. Ash grinned as both attacks connected to the grabbers. However, it appeared Adrian's choice of Pokémon couldn't have been worse, as the bolt did literally nothing against the insulated grabbers.

"Dang it!" Adrian muttered.

"Sorry about that," Ash sighed, "Team Rocket's machines are typically electric proof."

"You had to mention that now." The teen muttered, "Ok then, Hidden Power!"

"Brave Bird!"

Before Team Rocket could react, the ghost typed Hidden Power and powerful Brave Bird smashed through the talons, freeing the rat and fox, who were promptly caught by the falcon.

Adrian grinned. "Great Job Ash, now let's finish this battle up."

"Alright then! Pikachu, Thunderbolt!" Ash called.

"Umbreon, Dark Pulse!"

The two trainers gasped as the powerful attacks slammed into the Rocket trio…when the smoke cleared however, the trio was still standing, a Wobbuffet standing in front of the using Mirror Coat. "Hahaha!" Jessie cackled, "Your attacks are weak in comparison to Team Rocket's strength!"

Before either trainer could respond, the Dark Pulse and Thunderbolt slammed into the Pikachu and Umbreon, knocking them off Talonflame.

"Pikachu!" "Blackie!" Ash and Adrian called in distress.

* * *

Serena observed the scene in front of her. Both Adrian's and Ash's powerhouses were knocked back, with Talonflame and Jolteon chasing after them. For once, it was time for her to be strong. She glanced down at Eevee, his eyes burning to join the fight. "You want to join them don't you Eevee?"

"Vee Eevee!"

"I thought so." Serena smiled before regaining her composure. "Alright then, let's join the fight! Eevee, use Shadow Ball!"

The fox grinned as he leaped into action, hurling a beam of shadow energy at the trio. James noticed the fox. "Hey Jessie, it appears the twerpette is entering the fight."

Jessie redirected her attention from the falling Pokémon. "You're right. And she's got a new partner too!"

"A perfect new catch for Team Rocket!" Meowth concluded.

"Wobbuffet, use Mirror Coat!"

The patient Pokémon saluted as the sphere of energy slammed into it head on, only to be reflected back even stronger.

To the trio's surprise, Serena grinned. "I thought you were going to do that! Now Eevee, run right through it!"

What Serena had remembered was that no matter how powerful the move, no ghost type attack could hurt Eevee, a normal type. The fox grinned evilly as he leaped into the air, phasing right through the attack without even flinching.

"Yikes! How could you forget that Eevee is a normal type Jessie?" James cried.

"It's not my fault! How was I supposed to know?" she protested.

"Guys! He's coming in for the kill!" Meowth interjected.

"What's the worst it can do?" Jessie scoffed, "We're much too far away, and the strongest ranged move Eevees can learn is Swift."

"Oh how you're so wrong," Serena smiled softly, "Use Hyper Beam!"

The eyes of the Rocket Trio bulged as the small brown fox charged up a beam of energy larger than itself. "EeeeeeeeeeVUI!" the fox cried as its small form flew back from the attack's throwback.

The resulting explosion lit up the sky as the four crispy Rocket members flew into the air.

"Jessie, was it just me or did the twerpette order the Eevee to use Hyper Beam?"

"That's wasn't you James, we really were hit by a Hyper Beam."

"A might powerful one at that!"

"Oh well, We're Blasting off Again!"

"Wobbuffet!"

* * *

Serena smiled as she put her hand to her heart. "Oh Eevee, we're going to go far, I just know it."

The Eevee joined her on the field again, a newfound respect for his trainer. He rubbed against her leg softly. "Eevee!"

Just then she heard a wild series of clapping and cheering. She turned around to see Adrian, Ash, and the rest cheering. "That…was a great performance Serena." Adrian complimented.

"You were the best Serena!" Bonnie added.

"You were awesome!" the twins cheered.

"I must was I was impressed." Clemont observed.

"Hey," a warm hand patted her on her shoulder. Serena turned around to find Ash grinning at her. "You did a great job out there! You were so brave and confident out there. You should battle with me more often."

The girl blushed. "You think so?"

"Definitely!" Ash grinned, "Now can we resume our battle Adrian?"

"I'll have to put a hold on that Ash. Blackie needs medical attention, so we'll have to resume our battle another ok?" the young man denied.

"Well then, we need to have a rematch some time then." Ash concluded. "So you guys should travel with us for a while, at least until we get our rematch."

"Oh wow! Can you? Please?" Bonnie screamed.

Adrian's eyes met with his girlfriend's, then with the twins as they nodded in approval. "Alright then Ash, if Serena and Clemont are fine, we'd be happy to join you guys."

"Great!" Ash grinned. "You also have to explain that girl (no space) friend thing to me as well. Don't forget that."

Serena's face immediately reddened as the rest of the gang laughed. Adrian tried to hold back a chuckled as he smiled. "Alright then Ash, I'll make sure to explain that before I leave as well. We'll stick with you guys to the end of the Kalos League, which I assume you'll be battling in, right Ash?"

"You bet." The trainer grinned as Pikachu raised a thumbs up.

* * *

"So, that's Ash Ketchum."

"Yeah, that's him in the flesh. Can't say I'm all that impressed. He's got spirit alright, but I didn't see anything near the skill level he raved about."

"Well, maybe you can help him reach that former skill that the boss so badly wanted from him."

"Hmm…I'll keep that in mind. Anyways, anything on our fiery friends?"

"The twins scoured the area. No sign of them. The tip we were given was a hoax."

*sigh* "Well, I guess we're back at square one."

"Not exactly. Sapphire felt something odd back in Lumiose."

"That's on the way right?"

"Do you ever check a map?"

"Heh heh, not really. That's why I have you."

"I swear…yes, it's on the way."

"Good, I hope we can finally get these guys. We really need to set up someone here in Kalos. I can't keep taking random vacations. If he knew I was here, he'd have my head."

"Or just three months' worth of paychecks and a whole lot of paperwork."

"I'd think I'd rather go with my head than that."

*Uh-oh, someone's got a secret agenda. With Ash's new friends Adrian, Alley, and the twins Ruby and Sapphire joining them, what new adventures await them? Dangerous foes? Villains? Betrayal? Secret Agents? What about the mysterious Eevee Trainer known as Adrian?*

"Hey, stop ruining my cover!"

*Anyways, stay tuned!*

"I swear this guy is going to be the death of me."

"Umbre!"

* * *

So, how'd you like it? So…I created a fake region. I know, let the flames and hate messages begin. I just wanted to highlight my favorite Pokémon. Anyways, I know what's coming up in my story, but I want your opinion.

1\. **Should I remake the _Hoopa & the Clash of Ages_ movie with Adrian and the gang as well**? It'd be a few extra chapters before we get any plot growth or development, but I know we love seeing remakes of movies.

2. **I'm looking for OCs for the Kalos League**. Let me explain that these guys are going to be short appearances for Ash to battle in the Kalos League. I'm not telling you whether or not he'll win it, but I just need some characters to battle him against. Send me a PM with your trainer's name, description, Pokémon (moveset if you want. Try to keep it down to six or less moves), and a very general battling style. I tend to follow the Hot Fire Cold Fire technique explained in the fic From One Side to Another, but feel free to explain battle style in more depth if you wish.

Again, I love your support by reading and favoring the fic, but please, **leave reviews with your opinions, ideas, and critiques**. I live for those and not so much for the views and followers. Oh, and while you're here, give Emerald Knights a read for the future story of Sapphire Redding and Flare.

Anyways, May the Force of the Lord God Almighty be with you Always!

UCCMaster


	4. Chapter 4

Hey everyone, UCCMaster here!

This chapter is a little short, but I feel like I owe you guys a chapter. I completely made a mistake in my planning the story. I wanted certain things to happen but then realized that those events happened on the other side of Kalos. My bad for not playing X or Y. Someone asked in Anabel is going to appear (I did add her as one of the Dramas Personal.) Anabel will make an appearance in this chapter. But after going into some thought I realized I only put her there because Alley, her older sister is there. I'll probably switch around that actual characters to be Ash, Serena, Ruby, Mairin. Why Ruby and Mairin? Ruby is a major player in the arc compared to Sapphire, who's the main character of Emerald Knights. Mairin is introduced and has a big role this arc as well. I'll probably adjust the character each arc.

This is the beginning of a new Arc. ARC I was [Ash, Serena], Eevee, OC. ARC II is [Ash, Serena], Ruby, Mairin.

* * *

"We've finally arrived!" Bonnie cried in delight!

Ash grinned. "Yep, Lumiose City here we are!"

"I still can't believe how big it is." Ruby observed.

Sapphire sighed, "That's our Ruby, always the tourist."

*Our heroes have arrived in Lumiose City at the request of Professor Sycamore. What adventures await our heroes as Ash prepares for the Kalos League? *

"Actually the Narrator wasn't bad that time." Alley noted.

"I still don't like the guy." Adrian informed his lilac haired girlfriend, "He's obnoxious and treats this entire thing like it's some sort of kid's TV show. How old does he think we are?"

*Ten? *

Ash glared into the sky. "Hey! Watch it! I'm sixteen, thank you very much!"

Sapphire and Bonnie giggled. "That's our Ash!"

Clemont sighed. "Good gracious, we got another Bonnie! Please don't try to find a wife for me Sapphire."

"Wife?" Sapphire tilted her head curiously. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Oh," Bonnie giggled, "You see my big brother is so weak and dopey that he needs someone to take care of him when I'm not around. So I'm always on the lookout for a wife for him since he can't find one himself."

"Oh really? Who do you have in mind?"

"Bonnie! Please don't embarrass me!" Clemont cried in panic.

Bonnie shrugged. "Well at first I thought Alley was perfect, but she's already taken and so is Serena."

Serena's face reddened quickly. Ash stared at Bonnie quizzically. "Who's taken Serena? She's right here."

Bonnie sighed. "You're so dense you know that?"

"Heh heh, yeah I've been told that. Let's see here, Misty always used to yell that at me. So did May, and then Dawn. Brock used to call me a lady killer, which is odd since I haven't killed anyone before. Iris just called me a little kid, which I found really annoying." Ash recounted. The gang stared at him in shock. Serena sighed, it appeared her dreams of Ash returning her feelings were farther than ever.

Adrian sighed. "It appears you and I need to talk sometime about the woes and affairs of women. But first, let's head over to Professor Sycamore's Lab. It's already midday."

"Espie!" "Pika!" "Nene!" the Pokémon agreed.

The gang soon entered the prestigious lab of Professor Sycamore. The clean shaven man peered from behind a door. "Oh! I'll be with you shortly!" he called.

Adrian and Alley sat on a bench nearby. "You guys go on ahead: we need to chat about something private."

"Alright." The gang nodded before the professor reentered the room. "Ash, Serena, Clemont, Bonnie, it's good to see you again. And who are you two?" he asked, gesturing towards the twins.

"Oh, I'm Ruby and this is my sister Sapphire. We're friends of Ash." The beanie boy introduced.

"Marvelous, well if you'd join me in the other room, I'd like to see all of your Pokémon."

"Ok!" the twins giggled before joining the rest of the group.

* * *

"You sure your cousin's information is correct?" Alley asked her boyfriend.

"Well, either Virgil's informant was lying or Team Rocket is making up the entire dimension shifter tech just to fool around with us." He responded. "If these guys are really collaborating with them, it's not going to be pretty."

"First we need to find them. We still don't have any leads on where…" Alley's Holocaster began beeping wildly.

"Your sister?" Adrian raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, though it's weird. Over in Kanto it's around three in the morning. This has got to be serious." Alley noted before opening the device.

A mini projector sprung to life, showing a younger teenager with lilac hair. She wore a white and lavender bodysuit with what appeared to be a tan bandolier strapped to her shoulder. "Anabel? What's going on?" her sister asked.

The projection yawned slightly. "Sorry to interrupt you guys, but I think I found the information you've been after."

"Explain." Adrian responded.

"My team found a laboratory with Rocket markings on it. When we cleared it, we discovered that our 'friend' who we all know and love really is in cahoots with them. If he's involved with Rocket, you'd better check out his Kalos equivalent."

"Never liked her anyways, figures." Adrian muttered.

Anabel glared at him. "Anyways, we found a schedule for something to be delivered to Rocket from some sort of big time lab in Kalos called Lysandre Labs. If your friends are anywhere, that's a great place to start."

"Will do Anabel. Thanks." Adrian nodded.

"Oh, by the way," Alley grinned. "We ran into a certain raven haired trainer with a Pikachu."

The girl blushed slightly. "You ran into Ash?"

"Yep, and to add onto it: guess who's got him wrapped around her finger?"

"Who?"

Adrian glared at his girlfriend. Anabel was going to hate him for the rest of eternity, ruining his only chance with her sister. "Remember how I was going to visit my cousin Serena here? It turns out she and Ash are childhood friends."

"Oh, well that's a disappointment." The hologram sighed.

"Sorry about that little sis."

"No, it's alright. Besides, I was pretty much over Ash anyways."

Adrian cleared his throat. "If I may, there is someone who I think has taken a fancy to you."

The younger lilac haired girl's eyes widened. "Really? Who?"

"Well…" the man grinned before a certain girlfriend's elbow jabbed his stomach, "Umm…apparently it's for me to know and for you to find out."

The younger lilac girl grinned. "I see; I'll begin my investigation once I finish cleaning this mess up. Espeon, get those two admins ready for interrogation, what was their names again? Cassidy and Woof?"

An angry male voice yelled from off screen. "It's Butch!"

"Silence!" came another voice followed by a sickening thwack! The trio sweat dropped.

Alley raised an eyebrow suspiciously. "You need help?"

Anabel tried to hold in a giggle. "It's alright big sis, I got plenty of experience dealing with morons. I mean, I had to survive you didn't I?"

Her older sister glared. "What did you say?"

"I don't know how you managed to hook someone as patient and calm as Adrian big sis. How do you handle my obnoxious older sister Adrian? I need to know your secrets."

Adrian chuckled. "I ask myself that every day."

"Hey!"

"But I also ask myself what I did to deserve such a wonderful woman as my girlfriend." He added.

"Thank you," Alley smiled, "Now go interrogate those morons and update us on any info you get."

"Will do! Anabel out!" the hologram winked out.

"Lysandre Labs," Adrian turned to his girlfriend, "Worth looking into."

"We can ask Professor Sycamore later. For now, let's regroup with Ash."

* * *

Meanwhile, Ash and the rest of the gang had followed the professor deeper into his laboratory.

"So Professor, how can we help you?" Ash asked curiously.

"Well Ash," the professor started, "There recently was a spike in Mega Evolution Waves over in Geosenge Town and I wanted to ask you and your friends if you'd be willing to investigate the disturbances for me."

"Of course professor, we'd be happy to help!" Ash grinned.

Serena stopped. "Hold on Ash, you forgot something. The league tournament starts in about a week. It took us over a month to get to Geosenge town last time. By the time we got there and back, we'd be far too late."

Ash froze. "Oh right...sorry professor. We'd be happy to help you after the league tournament."

The professor sighed. "It's alright Ash. I'll find someone else. Typically I'd ask Alain to do it, but he's been missing recently."

"Who's Alain?" Clemont asked.

"Oh, Alain was one of my main assistants. He left some time ago to become a trainer, but I still ask him to help me with field work from time to time." Sycamore ran up to a computer and began pulling up images of a young man about Adrian's age with black hair and blue eyes. The most distinctive feature of the trainer was his wool scarf wrapped around his neck. "What makes him unique is his ability to Mega Evolve his Charizard."

Ash's eyes widened at the sight of a black and blue dragon. "Woah! Charizard can Mega Evolve? Why didn't anyone tell me?"

The professor stared at him curiously. "Umm...I guess it never occurred to me to tell you that all the Kanto and Hoenn starters can Mega Evolve. Why is it such a big thing?"

Ash grinned. "You see, I have a Charizard and Sceptile back home."

"YOU DO?" The group gasped in surprise.

The boy and Pikachu scratched their heads sheepishly. "Heh heh, I guess it never occurred to me as well."

"How many Pokemon do you have?" Bonnie asked curiously.

"Well, I have...hmm...I don't know. I guess I got to count them all." Ash began silently counting on his fingers.

The group sweatdropped. "You know Ash, you could look up on your Pokedex your total number of Pokemon." The professor offered.

"Oh, that' s neat. Thanks!" Ash opened his device and began scrolling down information. "Hmm...it says here I have sixty eight Pokemon."

"SIXTY EIGHT?" The group gasped.

"That's enough for eleven full teams of Pokemon!" Clemont exclaimed.

Serena couldn't help but beam at how impressive her crush was. Ash was confused. "I don't get it. I don't remember catching that many friends."

"Pikachu!" The mouse nudged Ash and gestured to something on the screen. Ash nodded. "Oh I see, thirty of those are Tauros."

"You have thirty Tauros?" Clemont shrieked.

"Heh, heh, yeah. They're pretty great." Ash shrugged.

"Ash, you are aware that most trainers only catch anywhere between ten and twenty Pokemon in their lifetime? The fact that you have thirty eight Pokemon minus your Tauros herd is very impressive." The professor added.

"Umm...I wasn't."

The group nearly fainted in exasperation. Ash observed the group until he noticed something odd. "Hey guys, where did Ruby go?"

* * *

Ruby knew he felt something odd when he had walked into the lab. When they were walking through the lab, he thought he had heard someone crying. Once he felt that no one was watching, he silently took off in the direction of the sobbing. Sneaking his way past the other lab assistants, he found lone door leading into an unknown room. He didn't know anything about the room except there was something wrong in the room. He couldn't really describe it, but his senses was telling him something sorrowful had happened in the room.

Adrian had always told him that sometimes people need help, even if they feel like they don't need it. 'People' he would say, 'thought they have the right to choose how they live their lives. But sadly, Arceus didn't create humans to be particularly smart, so we're pretty stupid creatures by nature. Trying to do whatever we want often gets us into more trouble than we could handle. Rather, if we seek true freedom, we need to live out the life Arceus planned for us.' From what it sounded like, someone was hurt on the inside. Ruby believed the plan for his life was still unknown, but he knew he couldn't just stand by and let someone stay in pain. So he opened the door and walked in.

He found hospital room similar to the ones at Pokemon centers. However this one was much more comfortable and had a couch and soft chairs. On the bed was an unconscious Pokemon. Ruby was surprise to recognize it as a Chespin, though it was glowing green for some odd reason. What drew his attention was a girl about his age lying on the pokemon's bedside, sobbing. The red haired girl wore a green outfit that Ruby sort of found...cute. He blushed slightly at the thought. "Umm...excuse me miss, are you alright?"

The girl turned around to reveal light brown eyes clouded with tears. The girl stared at him. "Who are you?"

Ruby was so taken with her appearance he almost forgot to speak. "Oh, yeah, I'm Ruby. I'm a new trainer. Professor Sycamore was showing my friends and I around the lab and I heard crying. So I went to see if you were alright?"

"Alright?" The girl sobbed slightly. "I'm ok I guess."

The boy shook his head. "No you aren't. You're crying. When Sapphire cries, she's not alright. She makes that very clear. So if you're crying, you're not alright. So what's wrong?"

The girl pouted before turning back to face the unconscious pokemon. "Isn't it obvious?"

Ruby scratches his head as he chuckled softly. "Heh, well I can take a guess, but Adrian always told me never to automatically assume you know what's in a girl's head. It's better to let them tell you what's wrong, and then offer to help however you can. The best way to avoid a girl's wrath is through good communication. Too bad he doesn't follow his own advice."

The girl giggled slightly. "What do you mean?"

"Well, one time Adrian ran ahead to chase after Buddy, sorry Eevee who had run away. He didn't even bother telling his Alley, Sapphire, or me where he had went. When we finally met up, oh he got it."

"What happened to him?" The red haired girl asked.

"Alley convinced Espie to use Psychic to hang him upside down until he had apologized thoroughly for not telling her where he had ran off to."

The girl giggled, then broke down laughing. "That's so funny. I wish I could do that, but none of my Pokémon can use Psychic. Well Chespie could use Vine Whip to hang Alain..." The girl stared at the floor.

Ruby detected the pain in bringing up what appeared to be a painful subject. "Isn't a ten year old girl too young to be dealing with boy problems?"

The girl glared at him. "You saying something Mr. I know it all? I'll let you know I'm eleven and I don't think of Alain like that. He's just being so arrogant and cocky and I'm worried he'll seriously hurt himself sooner or later. Now he's gone storming off and I'm left here to take care of poor Chespie."

Ruby raised his hands in defense. "Hey, hey, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions like that. Look at me, I'm not following the advice Adrian gave either."

The girl smiled lightly. "Oh, you're so funny. You must really look up to this Adrian guy."

"Yeah, he's my mentor and trainer. Sapphire and I were really young when he took us in. He's practically raised us himself." Ruby thought for a moment before adding. "Sapphire is twin sister, don't get any ideas."

"I wasn't but thanks for clarifying." The girl smiled before offering her hand. "I'm Mairin."

* * *

How's that Everyone? Let me know in the reviews tab! I have my own opinions on life and a lot of Ruby and Adrian's ideals are taken from a conservative Christian theology, simplified and modified for Pokémon. Anyways, the next chapter for The Eevee Trainer or Black 2 & White 2: True Colors will be next.

May the Force of the Lord God Almighty be with you! Always! Merry Christmas!

UCCMaster


	5. Chapter 5

Hey everyone, UCCMaster here!

I put a lot of humorous interactions between the gang and Mairin as well as some cute Ruby x Mairin shipping (I need ideas for shipping names for this new couple). We get a little bit of density breaking for Ash but I sorta steered away from the actual Pokémon in this chapter. Also I did some connections between Emerald Knights and this fic as well as some background to our characters. So enjoy this chapter and please Review.

I do not own Pokémon

* * *

"So you're telling me you lost track of Ruby?" Adrian stared at Ash.

"I'm sorry Adrian, one moment he was with us, the next he was gone." Ash hung his head.

Adrian sighed. "Sapphire, any sign of him?"

Sapphire had her eyes closed in concentration. "I think I got a reading on him. This way." She led the group down several hallways and corridors.

The professor tapped Alley on the shoulder. "How did Sapphire know where Ruby went? She just closed her eyes and bam, she knew where he was."

Alley stared back at him. "It's sorta hard to explain. Ruby and Sapphire are twins. It's sort of a twin thing they share. They often can just tell what the other is thinking, or detect each other's presence from far away. I personally think it's part of the bond they share as close siblings. They're practically inseparable."

The professor took a moment to process what had been revealed to him. "Hmm...it sort of sounded like a Pokémon bond for a second."

The young woman shrugged. "I don't know. It just works like that. Let's get moving."

The group rounded a corner to find, to their surprise, Ruby sitting on a couch facing towards a hospital bed. If that wasn't strange enough, what startled the party was the red haired girl in green crying on his shoulder.

"...and then when I saw him next, he was unconscious and glowing green. Oh Ruby I was so scared." The girl sobbed.

"Ruby?" Adrian asked.

Ruby looked up. "Oh, hi Adrian, guys, sorry I ran off. I heard someone sobbing and had to check it out. Mairin, this is my friends."

The girl looked up to reveal cute blue eyes. "Hi, I'm Mairin. My friend over there is Chespie."

Serena smiled at the boy. She quietly wished that Ash would be as comforting to her as Ruby was to the red haired girl. Alley moved her way towards the boy. "I'm Alley, this is Adrian, Sapphire, Ash, Clemont, Serena, and Bonnie. Nice to meet you."

"You see, Mairin was just explaining that her Chespie had been injured at Lysandre Labs." Ruby explained.

"He hasn't woken up in a week." The girl next to him sobbed.

"Lysandre Labs?" Adrian raised an eyebrow curiously. "What do they do there?"

"Lysandre Labs is run by a man named Lysandre. His company develops technology that increases the bonds between Pokémon and Trainers." Professor Sycamore explained. "Your Holocaster were developed by the scientists at his laboratory."

"Alain has been working with Lysandre on Mega Evolution." The red haired girl explained. "He was the person who gave Alain his Charizardite."

The professor raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Really, he never mentioned that. I wasn't aware he was exploring Mega Evolution."

The girl nodded. "Yeah, when I last saw him, Lysandre had him battling ten trainers in Mega Evolution battles. But seeing Charizard get hurt so much, I got worried about him. That's when he told me that…I was holding him back."

The girl broke into tears, clinging tightly onto the boy next to her, causing him to blush slightly. Alley grinned slightly. "Aww, that's cute."

Ruby glared back, but didn't let go of the sobbing girl. "Relax Mairin, I'm pretty sure he didn't mean it. I mean, it sounded like he was only looking out for you. He didn't want you to get hurt right? So I guess he wanted you out of the action to keep you safe."

Sapphire sighed before grasping the other red head's shoulder. "Listen, you're not weak. From what I can tell, this Alain guy thinks you're weak and is holding him back from reaching his true potential. To be honest, the image you're showing here isn't weak, but it isn't strong either. You need to show him your strength, show him that you won't hold him back. That's what I've learned from Alley. Just because you're a girl doesn't mean you're the weaker link here. More often than not, it's the guy who needs rescuing, and not typically in the normal way either. You need to toughen up."

"Sapph, not now." Ruby chided her. "She's been hurt bad and needs to let out her pain. Toughness isn't what we want here. Can't you feel the pain Chespie's feeling? This isn't the time to go brawny here. What she needs here is someone who can just sit down and cry with her."

"I think that she needs someone to toughen her up. Can't you see she feels weak and pitiful? She needs someone who can be tough on her and give her the push to overcome her weakness." The other redhead retorted.

"Comfort."

"Strength."

"Comfort!"

"Strength!"

"Enough!" Alley's voice interjected, her lilac hair almost on fire. "Look at yourselves, squabbling over someone else's business. You should be ashamed of yourselves."

The twins looked down in shame. "We're sorry Miss. Alley."

"Not to me, to her. You're tearing the poor girl apart."

"I'm sorry." Sapphire grunted.

"Yeah, me too." Ruby muttered.

The girl stared up at the twins and cracked a small smile. "Thanks guys. I'd love to hang out with you Sapphire it's alright. I do want to get stronger, and eventually Mega Evolve."

"You mean Mega Evolve your Pokémon. People can't Mega Evolve." Bonnie corrected. "That's silly."

To her surprise, the twins shared a look before snickering. Bonnie didn't get it. "What?"

"It's nothing." Sapphire cleared. "Sure Mairin, I'd love to hang out with you. We can get together whenever you'd like. That alright Adrian?"

The man nodded. "Of course Sapph, it's always great to hang out with friends."

"And Ruby?"

Ruby looked up. "Yes?"

The girl stared her blue eyes into his emerald eyes before blushing slightly. "Thank you for sitting her with me. Your timing was perfect. You listened to me and let me cry. Alain never let me cry in front of him." She blushed even more as she compared Ruby's soft emerald eyes to his handsome face and his cute hat.

Ruby began to feel awkward under the girl's stare. "Umm…why are you staring at me like…oh!"

Before he could finish his sentence, the girl had pecked him on the check, causing both to blush madly. "Wow!" Was all the boy could muster.

Alley nudged Adrian. "Look out, you'll soon be having grandchildren before you have kids of your own."

"Hey, are you suggesting something?" The black haired adult enquired.

The lilac haired woman smirked. "Nothing, nothing at all."

Serena giggled while Ash stared at them in confusion. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing," Serena replied, "Nothing at all."

"Hmm…doesn't seem like nothing." Ash muttered, scratching his head. "Pika." The mouse agreed.

* * *

Later the group had gathered around a lunch table nearby. "Thanks for taking me out." Mairin munched happily.

"No problem." Alley replied before smirking. "Anything for Ruby's girlfriend." She giggled causing the two preteens to blush.

"She's/I'm not my/his girlfriend." The two protested instantaneously.

"I thought she was." Ash muttered a little too loudly, causing both kids to turn dark red.

"Ash!" Serena cried. "That's not what they meant."

Adrian took the naïve boy's shoulder. "Come with me Ash, let's chat."

"But I'm still eating!" the boy protested before being dragged off by the older teen.

The group watched the pair leave. Professor Sycamore, taking initiative, changed the subject. "So Alley, I know where Ash, Clemont, Serena, and Bonnie are from, but I don't know anything about you and your friends. Where are you from? What's your profession?"

"Well," Alley explained, choosing her words carefully, "I'm from Tojoh Falls in Kanto. I'm more or less a Pokémon Watcher, which means I observe Pokémon in their natural habitats and sketch them."

"Wow, that's amazing." Clemont observed.

"You should see her sketches." Sapphire added.

Mairin nodded, "It sounds like an awesome profession. I wish I was good at art."

"It's alright. I'm not great at it either." Ruby condoled his new friend.

"What about Adrian?" the Professor continued.

"Oh, Adrian is a Pokémon…err…breeder slash trainer slash researcher. He's technically an Eevee Trainer, so he breeds Eevees. But at the same time, he's a powerful trainer who used to challenge gyms."

"What about the researcher part?" Clemont asked.

"Well, you might have not known it, but Adrian's done some extensive research for the Pokémon Science Foundation, mostly research on Eevees and their behavioral patterns."

"That sounds familiar." The professor remarked. "Now I know where I've heard his name before. Adrian Yvonne was the head researcher on the Emerald Knights archeological expedition a few years back."

"Emerald Knights?" Serena asked curiously.

The twins glanced at each other nervously. "Yeah, we helped him with it. We were chasing after sightings of the legendary Eon Pokémon, Latios and Latias."

"Latios and Latias?" Mairin titled her head. "Who are they?"

"Latios and Latias are twin legendaries that most commonly are associated with the Weather Trio. The legend of the Emerald Knights spoke of a hypothesis that the legendaries were actually the personal bodyguards of the legendary dragon Rayquaza."

Mairin, to their surprise, yelped in panic upon hearing that name. "Did you say Rayquaza?"

"Yes, have you met one?" Alley asked.

To their disbelief, the girl nodded. "We were in Hoenn when it happened. Alain, Steven, Lysandre, and I went to a place called Spear Pillar to research Mega Evolution when Rayquaza jumped out of nowhere and wreaked havoc upon the place with its Draco Meteor. Not to mention it Mega Evolved."

"Rayquaza Mega Evolved?" The professor gasped. "I was never informed that he could!"

To his surprise, Clemont, Bonnie, and Serena nodded. "You knew?" The professor called in disbelief.

"When we encountered Hoopa, he had summoned several Legendary Pokémon including Rayquaza to his aid. Ash commanded them and during the fight, both Latios, Latias, and Rayquaza Mega Evolved."

"That's unheard of!" the professor gasped, yet again. "Why haven't I been informed of these type of things? I'm supposed to be the leading expert on Mega Evolution." The professor lamented, causing the twins plus Mairin to giggle.

"Anyways," Alley resumed, wanting to move on, "Adrian spent about two years following leads on whether or not mass herds of Latios and Latias really did exist like the legend specified. Unfortunately, all we found was that there was no evidence that a full herd of Lati currently existed, though there was evidence that at a time they might have once been in large numbers. But Adrian gave up on the quest and stayed in the breeder/trainer business."

The professor nodded, taking in the information he had just learned. He noted he would need to keep a better eye on Lysandre Labs and ask them to share what information they had with him on Mega Evolution. "I see then, that means that Adrian Yvonne is from the secret Evo Islands."

The woman nodded. "That's right. Adrian prefers though that his homeland remain generally unknown."

"As for Ruby and me," Sapphire began, "We're from a small island known as Altomare."

"Ah, that makes sense as to how Adrian met you two." The professor realized.

The twins gasped in shock. "It does?"

"What are you talking about Professor?" Mairin asked.

"You see, if I remember Adrian's dissertation correctly, most of the legends behind Latios and Latias point to them being the guardians of Altomare. So for Adrian to meet you during his travels in Altomare is very likely."

"What's it like?" Bonnie asked curiously.

Sapphire pondered for a while. "Well…it's a pretty small island, but its special feature is that instead of roads, we have canals. We don't have cars, rather we get around on gondolas. It's sort of a unique way of getting around. It's very rustic and pretty, with hanging gardens and statues of the guardians everywhere."

"That's sounds amazing!" Mairin exclaimed. "I wish I could visit there."

"I could take you there sometime." Ruby muttered quietly.

The girl's eyes widened with glee. "You would? Oh thank you! Thank you!" She screamed as the redhead embraced the boy. Almost instantly, Ruby felt his cheeks heat up as he felt the girl's soft hands wrap themselves around his waist, causing Alley and Bonnie to snicker.

"Big brother, why can't you be such a gentleman like Ruby is? He has all the luck with the girls while you mope around with your inventions and I'll never find someone to take care of you." The small blonde complained.

"Bonnie!" her brother protested, barely audible over Sapphire and Alley's snickers.

"Oh Bonnie you're so adorable!" Alley laughed.

"Don't ever change!" Sapphire added.

"Hey Mairin?" Ruby asked.

"Yes Ruby?"

"Can you let go of me please? It's getting sort of awkward."

The girl's face reddened as she realized what she had just done. She instantly recoiled. "I'm sorry. I didn't realize I had made you uncomfortable." She apologized.

Serena was laughing as she wondered what exactly Adrian and Ash were up to. That was until an explosion rocked the city.

* * *

Adrian had led Ash to a park bench not far from the café. He let out Blackie to join Pikachu in a game of tag in the park, leaving the two raven haired men alone.

"So Adrian what did you want to talk about?" Ash asked.

Adrian stared at the younger teen. "Well Ash, there's two main reason why I brought you here. First, I wanted to ask you some questions about your journey."

Ash's eyebrows jumped in surprise. "Really? I never thought anyone would ask me about my journeys."

"You see Ash," The older teen continued, "I'm pretty well connected within the Pokémon community, and I've heard some pretty crazy things about you and your adventures. So I'm curious to hear how accurate the tales I've heard about you are true. Is it true that you were involved with Interpol during the Team Plasma incident?"

The boy nodded. "Yeah, Iris, Cilan, and I helped Looker and N battle against Team Plasma with Reshiram. It was quite epic."

The older teen nodded, "What about the Team Galactic incident? I heard you were involved actively against Pokémon Hunter J and saved Reggigas, a Riolu, and several Sheldon from her clutches. I was also informed you were actively involved in battling the twin teams of Hoenn on several occasions, encountering several Legendary Pokémon as well. What about Team Rocket? I know I saw those bozos who keep chasing you around but I also heard that you've gone toe to toe with Giovanni on more than one occasion. And what about the…you know, maybe you should just tell me about your adventures, starting from day one. I'd love to hear them."

Ash froze. No one had actually asked him to tell them all about his adventures. Normally people would get annoyed at him for his constant yammering, but Adrian was actually interested to hear his tales. So he began telling his tale, recanting the day he first met Pikachu, the time he saw his first legendary after the storm, his first Team Rocket battle, rescuing Charmander, the first time he met Mewtwo, and so. He talked about how scary it was to battle against Teams like Magma, Aqua, Galactic, and Plasma. He shared tales of how he met each and every one of his Pokémon, how they grew and eventually evolved. He didn't hold anything back, almost as if he had pent up all this knowledge he had felt afraid to share with anyone lest they think of him differently than they currently thought of him. It had almost been an hour when he finally finished his tale. He glanced at Adrian to see him deep in thought.

"Wow Ash, that's amazing what you've been through."

Ash perked up. He hadn't really seen it as amazing as much as just weird and coincidental. "You think so?"

The older teen nodded, "That's right Ash. I'm surprised people haven't bombarded you with attention. Normally a hero like this would be surrounded by the media and be on the G-men's hit list."

"Hit list?" Ash quirked his head. He had heard of the renowned organization originally started by Lance, but eventually reaching almost every region. They mostly worked as the enforcer branch of the Pokémon League, dedicated to stopping threats like Team Rocket.

"Normally the G-men would either try to recruit you into their ranks or arrest you for stopping all the threats they were too incompetent to handle." Adrian explained. "I mean; they dedicate their entire lives to stopping threats like the ones you handle on a daily basis. And yet I've only heard of two major busts they accomplished against an actual crime organization, that being Team Aqua and Magma."

"Are you with the G-men?" Ash asked curiously.

Adrian chuckled. "Sorry, nope. I'm not one of those guys. I just happen to listen around and have a lot of friends in high places."

"Oh," Ash nodded, realizing Adrian didn't want to elaborate on how he knew such things. "So you wanted to ask me two things right? What's the second?"

The teen laughed. "Oh, I just wanted to help clear up some confusion that I might have accidentally brought upon you."

Ash, quite literally, was confused. "What do you mean?"

"Oh, I told you about how your definition of girlfriend and most other people's definition of girlfriend are quite different, right?"

Ash nodded, now remembering the conversation. "Oh right. You were saying that what I meant by girlfriend was a girl (space) friend versus everyone's girl (no space) friend. What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well Ash," Adrian began, taking out a pencil and a small sheet of paper, "I want you to write out the word girlfriend."

Ash complied, writing out the words 'girl' and 'friend'.

Adrian nodded, "Ok, what you wrote is girl (space) friend. See how you have a space between girl and friend? This is normal friendship between a boy and a girl. They're friends but they keep a certain amount of space in-between each other. If you bring them any closer together, they get uncomfortable and eventually push each other back to a more comfortable distance, thus they are girl (space) friend and boy (space) friend. In other words, a girl who is a friend and a boy who is a friend.

"Now what happens when you remove the space?" Adrian wrote the single word 'girlfriend' on the line below, "There is no space in-between them. Normally they would feel awkward around each other, but instead, they feel most at home without any space between them. In fact, of you removed the space in-between them, they would feel empty and incomplete to the point that they yearn to be closer together. These people are a couple, Ash; a girl (no space) friend and a boy (no space) friend. When Serena and Bonnie refer to a girlfriend, this is the type of girlfriend they're referring to, a couple that surpasses the definition of friend and share a bond much deeper than friendship. You understand now?"

Ash took a while to try to process all that was given to him. "So why do so many people call me dense then?"

"You see Ash," Adrian continued, "While a true girl (no space) friend and boy (no space) friend both want to have no space in between each other, this rarely happens at the same time. Many boys and girls alike wish for a certain special somebody to be their girl (no space) friend and boy (no space) friend, but that special somebody might not be aware of their longing. This is what we call density, when you are unaware of someone's longing to close the space between your friendship. For some people it takes a really long time to move past the stage of density. For me, it wasn't. Alley and I hit it off immediately and within a week or two, I had taken her out on a date and asked her to be my girl (no space) friend.

"So Ash, this next week, I want you to examine your daily life and try to find signs of people trying to move past friendship, whether it's one way or both ways." Adrian challenged.

Ash grinned. "I think I can try, but I'm up to the challenge. Nothing's too great for a Pokémon Master!"

The two teens laughed. "Oh, it might be a bit tougher than that, but I think you can overcome it."

Just then, Pikachu and Blackie ran up to the teens.

"Pikapi!"

"Umbre!"

Ash grinned. "Hey Pikachu, you enjoy playing with Blackie?"

"Pikachu!"

"I'm glad you're spending time with other Pokémon Blackie." Adrian grinned. Just then, a powerful earthquake shook the ground around them. Ash and Adrian's eyes met.

"Woah, did you feel that?" Ash asked, checking to make sure Pikachu was alright.

The other teen nodded, pulling out a Holocaster. "Let me check in with the girls."

A small projection of a lilac haired woman popped up. "Adrian, you alright?"

"We're fine here, what just happened?"

"Not sure. The twins felt a powerful surge originate from the outskirts of the city. We're on our way to check it out."

"Right, send me the general direction and Ash and I will meet up with you."

The hologram nodded before flashing out. Adrian turned to his friend. "Let's go."

*With a sudden earthquake ripping through moments before, what awaits our heroes as they rush to investigate? Be sure to follow and review to find out! *

"Hey now this guy is acting like this is some sort of fanfiction now. What gives? I thought he was treating it like some kid's TV show."

"Come to think of it, he has been gone for a while. I was sorta getting worried."

"Ash, shut up."

"Ok."

* * *

Ok guys, how was that? I gave us bit of an update with the new Mega Evolution Special Act IV being dubbed yesterday. Mairin is now with Ruby sort of. We get a bit of background on Adrian and Alley as well as Ruby and Sapphire, which should be obvious if you read my Emerald Knights fic. Also how do you like my attempt to break Ash's density. I personally have no girlfriend so I can't vouch this is a perfect method but I thought it was a logical way to explain things to someone like Ash.

Anyways, like the narrator said: please **Follow** and **Review**.

May the Force of the Lord God Amighty be with you Always! Which as awakened!

UCCMaster


	6. Chapter 6

Hey everyone, UCCMaster here!

So I think this is the start of my main overarching plotline. I'll be having plenty of short few chapter stories, but right now we're starting a major episode in this so pay close attention. I'll be bringing up a lot from this chapter. So enjoy this chapter and please Review.

I do not own Pokémon

* * *

Ash felt his heart racing as Adrian and he rushed towards the source of the explosion. Pikachu was by his side, but judging from the intensity of the tremor that followed, he couldn't fully be sure that his team would be enough to save the day this time…it rarely did anyways. On the other hand, Adrian seemed so cool and collected, Blackie the Umbreon running at his side. Ash was jealous. Pikachu was happily perched on his shoulder while Blackie ran at his master's side. Nevertheless, there was work to be done and he never shied away from danger. Beside Pokémon and people's lives might be at stake.

*With little time on the line, our heroes rush towards the scene of danger. Can they arrive in time to save the day? *

"You know Ash," the older teen commented, "I think this narrator guy might know more than he lets on. We should really find this voice in the sky and interrogate him sometime."

"I wish." Ash replied, rolling his eyes. "Every time we try to find this guy we never get anywhere. Misty threatened to beat him up but the narrator said he's protected by liability laws and copyright infringes, whatever that means."

"Pika!" the mouse agreed.

The two were silent as they ran until Ash could see a faint plume of smoke rising from distance. "Over there Adrian!"

"Got it," his friend replied, pulling out what appeared to be a small Bluetooth ear device. Fitting it into his ear, he appeared to be calling Alley.

"Alley, I got a plume of smoke just southwest of my position. You know what's down there?"

Ash ignored the conversation as they neared the scene of the explosion. It appeared as though a large circular building had literally imploded, debris and wreckage littering the grounds around it. He could see a large gate impeding their entry of the grounds. Engraved on the guard post were the words 'Lysandre Labs'.

"Lysandre Labs, where have I heard that name before?" Ash muttered to himself.

Pikachu stared at his trainer in confusion. "Pi?"

"Oh," Ash replied, "I just felt like I've heard of Lysandre Labs before. Wasn't it some sort of tech company or something?"

"It's an industrial lab, the equivalent of Silph Co and Devon Corp. They develop technology for trainers such as the Holocaster we use." Adrian explained as he surveyed the damage from afar.

Just in front of them, Ash made out his friends. "Hey guys, over here!" he called, waving his arms to his friends. A moment later, the two groups had reunited.

"Good to see you guys alright." Adrian nodded.

"You okay Serena?" Ash asked, feeling a little protective over his friend. Woah, where did that come from? "Are you hurt?"

To his surprise, the girl seemed to blush slightly. "Oh, I'm okay Ash. Thanks for asking. Are you okay?"

Ash grinned. "Of course I'm fine. As long as I got Pikachu we're good."

"Pikachu," the mouse blushed in embarrassment. It was strange, but suddenly Ash felt more at ease being back together with Serena, especially knowing she was alright. Was this what Adrian meant about reducing the distance?

"So this is Lysandre Labs." Adrian gestured towards the fire.

Alley nodded. "The twins said they're pretty sure something odd is going on down there."

"Pardon me," the professor interrupted, "Who are these twins you're referring to? Surely you don't mean Ruby and Sapphire here."

"Professor," Adrian's gaze hardened as he gripped the man's shoulder, "What I'm about to tell you all is very sensitive information. I'd prefer if you'd forget it as soon as you hear it. Ruby and Sapphire are gifted with some psychic abilities, specifically the ability to sense their surroundings quite extensively. That's why they're under my internship: they wish to develop and hone their skills."

"So that's why Sapphire could automatically tell where her brother was." The professor mused. "Hmm…very interesting."

"Anyways," Sapphire interrupted. "There's a huge energy reading in the lab and it's vital that we investigate it."

She turned to the professor. "Professor Sycamore, do you think you and Mairin could bring some equipment so we can fully investigate?"

The professor nodded. "Of course, I'll run over to my lab right away and be back in a jiffy. Come Mairin, we have work to do!" He ordered before rushing off towards the city center, the younger girl right behind him.

To their surprise, Alley let out a sigh of relief. "Good, they're gone…I really didn't want that professor getting involved with this, much less Ruby's girlfriend."

"She's not my girlfriend." The beanie wearing boy protested.

His sister rolled her eyes. "Yep, that's right. She's just a friend who blushes around you and pecked you on the cheek. Yep, she's definitely not your girlfriend."

The boy's face reddened quickly. "Guys, can we please focus on the mission instead of my love life? It's embarrassing!"

"Nah," his sister retorted, "your love life is far more interesting."

"I like your style Sapph!" Bonnie complimented. "Now I just need to find someone proper for Clemont!"

"Denne!"

"Bonnie!" her brother protested, causing the group to giggle.

Adrian cleared his throat. "Anyways, let's go investigate the place."

* * *

As the group drew nearer to the gates, Ash could make out a large group of uniformed men surrounding the perimeter. They all wore matte black uniforms with an outlined 'K' on their shoulder patch. To his surprise, a familiar woman seemed to be giving them orders.

"...and direct the firefighters away to keep away from the western quadrant. Keep Officer Jenny away as we'll be handling it from here on out." The movie star champion ordered. The uniformed agents nodded, dispersing immediately.

"Hey Diantha!" Ash called in greeting.

"Pika pika!"

The woman turned in surprise. "Ash, Serena, Clemont, Bonnie, what are you doing here? And who are your friends?"

"We heard the explosion and rushed over here to find out what happened." Ash looked around, surveying the wreckage before them, "What happened here anyways?" He asked, taking a step forward to get a better look.

Almost immediately he was blocked by several of the uniformed men. "Sorry Ash," Diantha apologized, "I can't let you in here. This is a dangerous place right now and off limits. I know you want to help, but let me and the G-men handle this okay?"

"G-men?" Ash froze, remembering his prior conversation with Adrian.

"Yes," the champion nodded, "As champion I direct the G-men organization here in Kalos. It's part of my responsibilities. But I'm right now very busy so I'd appreciate it if you'd leave this to us, go home, and never speak of what you saw here."

The raven haired boy sighed, turning to leave when someone interrupted them.

"Hold on a sec, mind if I have a look around?"

The gang turned in surprise to see Adrian interrupting, Blackie and Espie at his side.

"You?" The champion asked in surprise. "umm...sorry, I understand you're an adult, but legally I'm going to have to say no. We have this completely under control."

The man shook his head. "I'm sorry, but I'd really appreciate it if I could look around and see I can see anything your G-men can't. Espie and Blackie are experts as sweepers and pay close attention to detail. Alley here is a Pokemon Watcher, she's very observant as well. Ash and his friends here have helped out on numerous occasions and I can supervise them as make sure they don't disturb any evidence."

The grey haired woman fervently shook her head. "No, no, I'm sorry. I can't allow that right now. You're not authorized to enter here. Just leave it to the G-men and we'll handle everything."

"Actually I am authorized."

The woman stared at the older teen in shock. "What do you mean?"

Adrian reached into his back pocket and pulled out a small wallet. He opened it up to show the champion something that Ash couldn't make out, but he could hear her inhale sharply.

"Great, just what we needed, one of you people." She muttered darkly. "Fine, you can come in, but don't touch anything or enter the western quadrant! You hear me?"

The older teen nodded. "Yes ma'am, we'll careful, promise."

Clemont turned to the group. "What was that all about?"

"Nothing really," the older teen replied. "Let's just get over there and look around a bit. You never know what we might find down there. Besides, Sapph said she sensed something powerful down there. It's worth investigating."

He faced his two Eevee companions, gesturing towards the ruins, which by now had been cleared of fire. "Sweep!"

Almost instantly, the two foxes dashed off into the rubble, their eyes glowing with psychic energy. "Meet back here once in ten minutes, that should give us enough to time to properly sweep the area."

* * *

Ash soon enough found his way back to the site. There wasn't much to say other than he found lots of rubble and lab equipment. Nothing out of place and definitely nothing that he could say was a doomsday device. As he was searching around, he had taken the time to have a think. Adrian was something of a mystery.

Sure, at first he was just Serena's older cousin and a strong battler, but this new action was something of a mystery. He had basically overridden the champion's authority and told her to back off and let him do the investigation. His Eevee team was strong, as far as Ash could see. His team currently was composed of his Espeon, Umbreon, Jolteon, and Sylveon, all of whom Ash respected during his numerous battles spent against them. He was from a strange region known as the Evo Islands, a place unique to Eevee and its evolutionary line, which meant Eevees were his specialty area.

Sure he had met Virgil who became the Unova League winner last year, but besides that, his general opinion of Eevee trainers was somewhat of a negative one. They generally weren't significantly strong, most of the time type specialists, focusing on switching their pokemon to get the type advantage rather than just going with what they had. He often found Eevee trainers to be annoying and obnoxious in his opinion, often times one trick Ponytas. So when he had battle Adrian for the first time, he was quite surprised at the sudden strength of his Eevee team. Sure, he switched out his Eevees quite a bit, but it didn't mean they weren't strong. Pikachu still swore that Blackie the Umbreon was his current rival.

"Pikachu, what do you think of our new friends?" He asked his shoulder friend.

The mouse put his paw on his chin, as if in deep thought. "Pika...pikachu!"

Ash smiled, "That's nice. I was just thinking about Adrian. I mean, who stands up to the champion and tells her off like that? He's somewhat bossy like that. I'm personally not sure what to think of him."

"Pikapi pikachupi!"

"Yeah, I know. He is quite strong. He's also Serena's cousin, so she's somehow connected to him as well. I mean, look at that Eevee she got."

The mouse groaned slightly. That Eevee was battle maniac. Sure Pikachu liked a battle here and there like any Pokemon, but this Eevee was in a league of his own. It didn't help that he knew Hyper Beam. How Serena kept him in line was still a mystery to yellow mouse. It amazed him that this Eevee could be such a battle maniac yet still agreed to be a performance Pokemon.

"Pikachu!"

"Find anything?" Serena called to him, Eevee at her side.

The boy shook his head. "Nope, just rubble and broken lab equipment. Nothing out of the ordinary." He scratched his head nervously. "It would also help if I knew what to look for."

The girl giggled slightly. "Oh Ash, you're so funny."

"Really?" Ash grinned slightly. "I guess I was sorta funny."

"Pikachu!" The mouse agreed.

"There you are!" The group turned to see find Alley, Clemont, Ruby and Sapphire making their way towards them. "Did you see anything out of the ordinary?"

Ash frowned. "Not really, just junk."

The older woman nodded looking around. "Right, now we just got to look for Adrian."

"Look no further for I have returned." A pair of arm suddenly wrapped themselves around the lilac haired woman.

The woman frowned. "What took you so long?"

"Aww...you missed me. I'm so touched."

Adrian's girlfriend shrugged him off. "Of course I missed you, you promised to look after the twins, but no, you had to go off on your own with Blackie and Espie."

The older teen blushed in embarrassment, "Heh heh, oops. But alas, I think this entire search was pointless. Nothing was to be found up here."

"Umbre!" "Espie!" The two Eevees chimed.

"Very well then, let's go back to the Pokemon Center. It's been a long day and I can't wait to take a nap."

* * *

Professor Sycamore and Mairin rushed onto the scene, their arms full of research equipment. "We're here! Sorry we were so late. I just needed to make sure we had everything."

To their surprise, the entire place was empty and deserted. The professor stared at the younger girl. "Where did they go?"

"I'm not sure. I'll check my Xtransceiver." The girl replied, dropping the large box of equipment onto the already large pile in the professor's arms, resulting in him grunting in pain.

After a minute of consulting her device, she turned to the professor and frowned. "Sorry Professor, it appears as though they left some time ago." When she read the next line she smiled. "But it appears that they invited me to join them for dinner. That's so nice of them. Sorry professor, I got to go right away!"

With that, she spun round and rushed down the path back towards Lumiose City. The Professor smiled then sighed. "Ahh...young love, I remember that feeling back in Sinnoh. Although Professor Rowan kept lecturing me on my behavior. Alas, I'm getting too old for this."

He took a step forward only to realize that his load had doubled in size. Moving would be quite impossible unless his risked his equipment breaking. "Aww dang!"

He glanced around, hoping to find help, but as mentioned above, the place was deserted. "Hello?"

"Anybody out there?"

"Hello?"

"...help?..."

* * *

Ash opened the door and stepped onto his room's balcony. It had been a crazy day.

First he had discovered some crazy stuff about Mega Evolution. Who knew his Charizard and Sceptile could Mega Evolve? He started wondering which of his other Pokemon could Mega Evolve. Surely it wouldn't be hard to get the right stones right? Maybe he could train some of his older Pokemon to evolve as well. He knew Garchomp could Mega Evolve and he had a Gible who already knew Draco Meteor. All of the Kanto starters could Mega Evolve so maybe Bulbasaur and Squirtle might be interested as well. Who knew possibilities lay for him in Mega Evolution. Maybe he should try to reunite with the gang during the Kalos League. It helped him back in the Sinnoh League, maybe he could replicate it here in the Kalos League.

Second, he had met Mairin, who's Chespin was sick with a disease they didn't have a cure for. Ash could help but feel pity for the girl and anger towards that sicko Alain who basically ditched to become stronger. That removed half of the reason for a journey in itself! You went on a journey to become strong, but also make friends along the way. Friends made you stronger, whether they be traveling companions, rivals, or even other people you meet along the way. Everyone has a different piece they add to the equation to reach your greatest strength.

That was honestly why Ash felt like he was at the top of his game back in Sinnoh. Brock and Dawn were with him as friends. Brock provided that older brother sort of support, being his statistics expert and protector. Dawn on the other hand provided younger sister support, she kept him going and smiling, her own confidence boosting his as well as stimulating his creative side. Ash didn't really know why he stopped using his creative style in Unova. Perhaps he felt like it just wasn't right to do it without Dawn being there to admire the fruits of her work such as the spinning and rolling maneuvers or their masterpiece, the Counter Shield. Being in Kalos had the same effect. Ash felt his creative gears cranking again, though not in the same way.

Climbing the wall with Grant had inspired him to have his team climb the meteors and boulders thrown at them.

Sanpei taught him how to use the deceptive art with Greninja, whether it being confusing the enemy with Double Team or using smoke to take the high ground.

Clemont's Bunnelby forced Pikachu to take Iron Tail to new heights as Ash found himself against a swift moving ground type.

Using his Hawlucha became a unique style of his own, using Dance tactics taught to him by Tierno and Serena.

Olympia had forced him to attempt to predict future moves in order to counter tricky tactics such as Future Sight.

And not to forget his first creative battle with Pikachu back in the Santalune Gym, using Iron Tail as a brace. Wait, where did that inspiration come from? That's right...Serena brought him back to that moment. Before then, he had been battling Unova style, a straight forward power match up. It almost seemed ironic as Unovans were so uptight and wild yet their battle styles were pretty much battles of shear strength rather than creativity. Perhaps that's why they didn't have a Contest or Performance circuit.

Third was that interesting conversation with Adrian. He seemed to know quite a lot about Ash's adventures, despite the two never meeting before. He knew about his work with Looker and Lance. How active he was against groups such as Team Rocket, Galactic, and Plasma. It was sort of odd. How did he know so much for being an outsider like that?

Let's not forget the entire conversation about girl (space) friends and girl (no space) friends. Ash was slowly starting to get it. He noticed throughout dinner that Serena enjoyed spending time near him. Did she wish to close the gap even further? Ash knew that closing the gap meant deepening the relationship. He wondered himself whether he would want to close the gap himself.

Finally, he had investigated Lysandre Labs. It had been horrifying to see something like that happen. Hold on a sec, was that Adrian? He silently peeked over the ledge to see none other than Adrian and his crew gathered in a circle.

* * *

"...you sure found the entrance?"

"I'm sure Alley. Espie was jumping in circles around it. My scanner agreed. There's definitely something down there, and Espie found the entrance."

"What about security?"

"Don't worry Ruby, that's why we got you guys here."

"Okay, everyone know the plan? Let's move out!"

* * *

Ash watched the group run off back towards the ruined lab. What was that all about?

*Uh Oh, what is Adrian up to? What's really going on with the Eevee Trainer? Stay tuned to find out!*

"Shhh!" Ash glanced into the sky. "You'll ruin my cover!"

* * *

Hey guys, sorry for taking forever to update. I've been having a major brainfart. I guess that's what happens when you have so many ideas running through your head at once. Anyways, what do you think? Let me know in the reviews section and you can even post OCs for the Kalos league, I need a few for Ash to battle. Also what's your opinion on Ash, Saywer, and Alain's meeting? It's going to be great right?

Also do you want me to introduce some of Ash's older Pokemon into the field, especially the Kalos League? If so, which Pokemon. I'll be honest, I'm not as familiar with his Johto, Hoenn, and Unova teams as much I know his Sinnoh and Kanto teams, as I said before, I'm a huge fan of D&P.

If I do bring in some, I'm probably bringing some combination of Staraptor, Buizel, Quilava, Snivy, and Donphan. Staraptor was my favorite of Ash's flying types, a close combat specialist like Talonflame. Buizel is one of Ash's most versatile water types after Greninja, with Oshawott being a huge disappointment. Quilava is a reminisce of when I played Heart Gold, plus everyone chooses Charizard, so why not choose someone else. I loved Snivy, the only sensible of the Unova pokemon. Donphan is Ash's baby who got real big. Note I don't include any of his possible Megas. I personally don't want Ash to get Mega Evolution just yet, I'll being gifting it to him later on.

Who do you want to see on the fields? It's coming up soon, within maybe two to three chapters from now if my schedule stays true.

Please **Follow** and **Review**.

May the Force of the Lord God Amighty be with you Always! Which as awakened!

UCCMaster


	7. Chapter 7

Hey everyone, UCCMaster here!

There's a lot of spoilers for the future of this fic, so pay close attention. Also I enjoy feedback, whether it's grammar or content or just simply a AWESOME! So enjoy this chapter and please Review.

I do not own Pokémon

* * *

*Our heroes enjoy some much needed rest…but will it remain for much longer? *

 _She was walking down the catwalk, a gorgeous white glittering dress sparkling in light. Delphox, Pancham, and Eevee at her sides. A white mist covered the catwalk, causing her Pokemon's fur coats to glitter. A song rang through her mind as she began dream of the stars. She had heard the stories behind them; powerful Pokemon dwelled out there such as the form shifting Deoxys or the blinking Elgyem. A younger Serena would gaze into the night sky wonder what amazing adventures lay in the stars. That younger dream had finally come to life._

 _To her delight, Ash was standing right there, grinning with pride. For once, she didn't feel shy or embarrassed around him. The entire crowd seemed to fade, leaving her alone with her Pokemon and Ash. His eyes sparkled, as if challenging her to make him proud. To her surprise, the world didn't seem to drop away as previous close moments had, rather it only made the world become more vivid and brilliant. It was time to show how far she's come from the timid and shy girl who fantasized about a far off boy. No longer was the weak and worried girl, this was confident Serena, a woman who felt joy in bringing smiles to the crowds and show off how beautiful her bonds were._

 _"Begin with Fire Blast and catch it with Psychic!" The psychic enhanced flames seemed to dance over the stage, beginning the tale of the stars._

 _"Follow up with Dark Pulse!" She called while twirling._

 _The panda obeyed, hurling several small spheres of dark energy into the air, exploding into sparkles as they touched the flames._

 _"Now Delphox use Mystical Fire! Eevee use Protect!" She called, watching as the flames engulfed her Eevee, surrounded by a Protect barrier._

 _"Now use Stone Edge!" Pancham's stone pillars hurled the small fox into the sparkling sky._

 _"Now Eevee, use…"_

* * *

"Serena wake up!"

The girl's eyes jerked open to find a pair of soft brown eyes staring at her. But instead of them sparkling and smiling at her, they were filled with worry and suspicion.

She yawned slightly as she realized it was only an hour or two after she had gone to bed. "What's going on Ash?"

"Adrian is gone."

The girl's eyes widened. This wasn't good. Well, she sort-of knew what Adrian did for a living, but she couldn't help but worry. Ash on the other hand was what was worrying her. He really had taken a liking to her cousin, almost looking up to him as a role model. The fact that her cousin tended to get a bit cocky, though he could easily take care of himself, from what she's heard from her mother, was not good for Ash to get into. "Ok, what do you mean?"

"I was up on the balcony thinking when I overheard Adrian talking to Alley, Ruby, and Sapphire. They were talking about some sort of entrance back at Lysandre Labs that they found. Then they ran off."

Serena took in the information, trying to figure out what that meant. "Ok, what should we do?"

Ash grinned. "I was going to go after them and see what they were up to and if they needed help, but I wanted to know if you wanted to come too."

"What about Clemont and Bonnie?"

"Well, it sounds sort of dangerous so I don't want Bonnie to get involved. And Clemont would worry too much about Bonnie; So it's best if he stays here to keep an eye on her." He scratched his head nervously. "Plus, I sorta wanted it to be just you and me, you know?"

The girl blushed. This was sounding just like some sort of midnight escapade. Sure she had fantasized about doing this with Ash, but never thought he would be the one to suggest it.

The girl got out of bed and headed towards the restroom to change. If they were going into danger, she'd better be properly dressed for the occasion. "Alright, but make sure you grab your entire team. Knowing Adrian, if he gets into danger, it's a real serious type of danger."

"How do you know that?"

She opened the door and was about to close it. "Adrian's from the Evo Islands. They don't have the same protection laws under the Pokemon League as Kalos does. From what I've heard from my mom, it's pretty rough out there and they actually need a defense force to keep out organizations such as Team Rocket. Adrian was part of the force last I heard."

When she opened the door, she was dressed to kill. She had kept her grey top on but had removed the pink dress in exchange for a dark navy turtleneck and black leather pants.

To her surprise, the raven haired teen seemed to gasp at her appearance.

"Woah Serena, you look…umm…awesome…" Was all he could manage, a drop of blood trailing from his nose.

She blushed, twirling around slightly to give him a full view. "Really?"

He nodded. "Yeah, umm…I'm going to get Pikachu."

* * *

A few minutes later, the two were running back towards the ruined laboratory. Ash had never before so alive. He had never been one to shy away from the face of danger, and now here he was, in the pitch darkness of the night, rushing into fray. But something was different. This time, he was rushing into the fray with Serena, just the two of them, well Pikachu and Eevee too.

Just seeing Serena dressed in something so different seemed to give him a nosebleed. He didn't understand why, but for some reason, Serena looked really…well…what could fit it? He preferred simple and short words to try to describe things for two reasons. One most people could understand simplicity and briefness, and two…well he didn't know a lot of big words.

But simple and short words didn't seem to be able to describe the honey blonde at that moment. The way she seemed to pulse danger but still be her kind and well…cute self seemed to almost…well it made his heart thump and his face turn red, so it did something different and new.

Sure May and Dawn loved dressing up in cute outfits. He always made sure to compliment their looks but that was it. He knew they were somewhat attractive for their age and there were plenty of boys who seemed to believe them to be the most beautiful people in the world (for May, it was that Drew guy who gave roses. Dawn had Kenny constantly admiring her.) but they just didn't seem to spark to him like Serena did. Maybe it helped that she was only a few months younger than him. May was three years younger than him, Dawn being four years. Iris was…well let's not go there, he still didn't know. Misty was two years older than him…okay, maybe at one point he had thought her pretty, but still there was no spark. So Serena, being the same age as him made him see her as his partner, rather than older or younger sibling. Again, he was starting to feel as though the gap between the two of them was slowly starting to close, and for some reason, he wasn't scared or nervous about the change.

Not to mention, his Pokemon had never been closer to hers. Maybe there was some connection with each person's Pokemon, but for the most part, Serena's Pokemon were very close to his. Greninja and Delphox seemed to have a very close partnership. Eevee had found a battle partner out of Pikachu. Pikachu hadn't gotten along with someone so well since well…Dawn's Piplup.

"Ash, is everything alright?" Serena asked, noticing his fazed appearance.

The boy nodded. "Yeah, everything is fine. I'm just realizing how much I enjoy traveling with you."

His compliment resulted in the girl blushing madly. "Thank you Ash, I really enjoy traveling with you too."

The gang had reached the site of the ruined lab in due time, but Adrian and his friends were nowhere to be seen.

Ash turned to Pikachu. "You think you can find them?"

The mouse turned to the fox, who nodded, turning their noses to the ground, they began to track the Eevee trainer and his friends. Eventually, the fox and mouse led the duo to a deeper section of the ruined lab. A large slab of metal had been peeled away to reveal an empty elevator shaft.

Ash pondered how to get down there before taking out two familiar Pokeballs. He released Talonflame and Noibat. "Hey guys, can you help us get down there?"

The two nodded allowing Ash and Serena to take hold of their talons. Slowly and with some unsteadiness, the two flying types managed to take Serena and Ash down the elevator shaft.

Ash returned the two and found the doors to be already open. "You think they went this way?"

Serena glanced at Eevee, who nodded. "Yep, Eevee definitely can detect Adrian here."

Beyond the doors was a long corridor that surprisingly didn't seem affected by the fire. What was very surprising was the two men slumped on the ground in front of them. They wore the ugliest looking red uniforms with a stylized F on their belt buckles.

Serena cringed at the sight of two knocked out men. "Do you think they're alright?"

Ash slowly approached them and put felt for the men's pulse. He nodded. "Yeah they're still alive. Just knocked out. We should get moving though. I hope whoever did this hasn't gotten to Adrian yet."

Serena nodded uneasily, letting Pikachu and Eevee lead the way.

Ash couldn't really explain it, but those two men gave him an uneasy vibe. Typically, when he encountered people wearing uniforms with a single letter on their uniforms, they turned out to be part of some evil team. Team Rocket had an R, Aqua and Magma had an A and M, Galactic had a G, and Plasma had a P. So what did F mean? Come to think of it, come think of it, the G men had a G on their uniforms as well. Did that make them also an evil team? Oh how he hoped they'd find Adrian soon, so he could explain what in the world was going on.

* * *

Up ahead Eevee sensed his former trainer's scent getting stronger. He yipped happily and rushed forward, Pikachu close behind. Ash and Serena nodded, running after their Pokémon. They rounded a corner only for a pair of hands to clamp around their mouths and pull them into a smaller hallway. Ash immediately panicked and tried to resist only for a familiar voice to shush him.

"Shh…Ash stop resisting, it's me." Adrian calmed him down, causing the raven haired teen to stop resisting. Ash noticed Alley had grabbed Serena and managed to calm her down as well.

"Oh good, we found you." Ash smiled.

The older teen frowned. "What are you doing here Ash?"

"Well I noticed you guys running off towards the labs and Serena and I wanted to see what you were doing."

The teen face palmed. "You had to get involved. Okay, fine, you can help us."

"Nice outfit Serena."

"Did Ash think so as well?"

Ash and Serena then noticed the twins standing behind them. The two teens blushed slightly as Ash thought about his odd feelings he got seeing Serena dressed like that, Serena focusing on how Ash complimented her.

"Okay, enough romance for now guys. Time to get to business." Alley snapped.

Almost instantly the twins froze and their faces darkened. "Right."

"Where do I start?" Adrian began, "Ok let's start here. When we were investigating the labs, Espie found this shaft leading to what appears to be a secret laboratory. It appears to be run by a crime team known as Team Flare."

"So that's what the F meant." Ash muttered.

"So it was you guys who knocked out those two men?" Serena asked.

"Epsie!" A familiar psychic type responded, its eyes glowing slightly. Yes, a faint psychic touch could knock out the weak minded quite easily.

"Anyways, I wanted to find out what they were up to, so we pretended not to find anything, but decided to come back later, being tonight. We snuck in, knocked out the guards with Espie, and made our way here when you guys came."

Ash nodded, taking it all into consideration. "Ok then, how can we help?"

Adrian gestured to a large door on the far side of the corridor. "That appears to be their main research lab, but Espie's picking up a lot of guards. Too many for us to normally handle. So I need a diversion.

"Alley was going to try to attack some of their assets on the other side of the lair, but I think she's appreciate it if you two help her out while the twins and I investigate the main lab."

Ash clenched his fist slightly. He knew that Adrian's plan basically was to get him and Serena away from the main event. "I want to be there with you Adrian. Pikachu and I can be a major help in the battle. Serena and Alley can take the twins instead."

Adrian raised a brow in surprise. "Ash, I know what I'm doing. I really need your help drawing as many grunts away from the main labs as possible."

"But I want to help you battle."

"Ash!" Serena gasped, appalled at his behavior. "Trust Adrian's plan. It's going to be alright."

Adrian sighed. "Alley, you and Serena get going, I'll talk to Ash privately. Take Espie with you incase you run into trouble. Ruby and Sapphire take point and let me know when it's clear."

Alley nodded, gesturing for Serena to follow her. The blonde and fox followed the lilac haired woman. The twins also left to prepare. When they both left Adrian turned to Ash.

"Ok Ash, what's really going on? I have a good idea what you're thinking, but I want to hear it from you yourself."

Ash groaned. "It's just that I'm tired of being treated like a kid you know? You're just pushing me away when I want to be in the middle of the action just like you. I know what's going to happen. I'm going to be left in the dark about what's really at stake and just will act as bait for you to take all the glory. That's what keeps happening. I help save the world, but somebody else gets all the credit."

Adrian sighed. "Ash, that's not true. Let me put try to put this in other words.

"Ash, you think you're just a kid on a quest, to be the best of the best. But let me tell you that someday you're destined for power and glory. You know you're up to the test, but there's only one way to tell this story.

"Ash, be a hero! Be a hero Ash. All the power is at your command, ok? Face your fears and show you're a hero. The future of the world is in your hands." Adrian chuckled slightly as if he thought of some inside joke. "Pokémon."

Ash stared at the older teen in confusion. "What's that supposed to mean? It sounded more like some sort of theme song than an inspirational speech."

Adrian sweat dropped. "Yeah you're sorta right. What my point is that just because you're not recognized doesn't mean that you don't have to be a hero. You have to ability to save the world here Ash and I'm trusting you to help me do it. Are you in?"

Ash processed what the teen told him before nodding. "Alright, but you'd better tell me what I missed."

The teen chuckled. "All in good time, Ash, all in good time."

He gestured towards the doors. "Now let's do this!"

* * *

Serena followed Alley down several hallways and corridors until they reached a fork in the road. The lilac woman turned to Serena. "This is where we go our separate ways. You won't know what's beyond those doors, but it's bad and you need to start doing damage right away. This isn't the time to be nice. Remember, for every grunt that we don't pull away from the main means one more grunt that could overwhelm Ash and Adrian."

Serena gasped in horror. She hadn't thought of it that way. Now she felt determined to protect her Ash. She glanced at Eevee with a serious look on her face. "You ready to cause a ruckus?"

The fox gave her a hungry look. Oh he was ready to kick some Flare ass! "Vee Eevee!"

She returned the look. "Good, let's get going!"

Alley chuckled. "Alright then, once you hear the sounds of sirens, that's your cue to go. We don't want Officer Jenny mistakening us for Team Flare, so it's important that we aren't caught."

Serena didn't understand why, but nodded before running down the left fork, Eevee at the side.

The corridor led to what appeared to be a huge generator with several grunts guarding it. She had gotten lucky. An attack on a generator would almost definitely get their attention. Now she needed to make this good.

"Hey you! What are you doing here?"

Serena gasped as she saw several grunts running towards her. She glanced at her fox, telling it to stay hidden. "Oh me," She feined ditzyness. "I sorta got lost. Could you help me?"

The grunts reached her and surrounded her. "You aren't supposed to be here. How did get here?"

"Oh me?" Serena pretended to be an airhead, completely unfazed by their numbers. Inside, she was terrified, but knew that this would be necessary to help Ash. "I just was walking around and fell down this big hole and now I was just wandering. You could help me get back out of here right?"

The grunts frowned. "Um…sure…we'll show you the exit." One started.

"Shush, she might be a spy!"

"I don't think she's a spy, boss. She's too pretty to be a spy. Hey, you're pretty fashionable. Would you like to join us here at Team Flare? Our uniforms show off our distinctive flare in fashion."

Inwardly, Serena cringed. Ouch. If they thought their uniforms were fashionable, they really were insane. "Umm…maybe, or maybe not. What do you do here?"

"Oh that's easy, we develop technology to help our leader take over the Kalos Region. Although that dimensional shifting stuff didn't really seem to make sense. Why are we doing that again?" The dumb grunt asked.

"Never mind that, You're not supposed to be giving away secrets like that!"

"Oops, I guess you really do need to join us or else we'll have to take you prisoner. It'd be bad if you're pokemon ended up like that other girl's Chespin."

Serena gasped. Team Flare was the people behind Mairin's Chespin? Oh they were going to pay. She slowly put her back towards the generators. "Oh well then, I guess I'll have to go…NOW!"

She threw Eevee into the air, allowing him to let off a series of swift stars towards the generators. Several impacted the machinery, blowing up quickly afterwards. Almost immediately, the lights went out, causing confusion amongst the grunts.

"What the…"

"Who did that?"

"It was that girl!"

"I told you she was a spy!"

"Alert Director Lysandre! We have an intruder here."

"We need backup!"

"She wasn't nice. I offered her a job and she went and took out our main power source. That wasn't nice at all."

"Would you shut up?!"

When the emergency lights (coincidentally being red) flickered on, the blonde intruder had vanished.

"Where did she go?" Demanded the admin.

Serena smirked. She had taken advantage of the confusion and made a run for it. Now she was hiding behind a corner facing towards the open room. Now to get them to keep chasing her. She released Pancham from his Pokeball.

"Pancham use Stone Edge!" She ordered at the top of her voice. The panda obeyed, causing jagged stone pillars to erupt from the ground, destroying even more machinery and giving away her position.

The grunts immediately pointed her out in the dimmed lighting. "There she is!" The head one screamed. "GET HER!"

Serena giggled slightly as she started running down the corridor. Those grunt's horrible uniforms were not very flexible and so she had no trouble outrunning them. Already her mind was planning out other methods to get even more attention. Wow! She was good at being devious and destructive. If she was forced into a battle, it shouldn't be that bad. Her Pokemon were at full strength and Eevee still hadn't revealed his special move yet.

She couldn't help but let out a mischievous chuckle as she ran down the halls, over a dozen grunts now on her tail.

* * *

Ash peeked around a corner. All clear so far. He had made his way away from the main corridor and headed down a smaller hallway. He hoped he would be able to find everyone. As well known, he was pretty clueless when it came to directions.

"Hey you stop there!"

Ash turned around in surprise to see several Team Flare grunts running towards him. Ash grinned before starting to run further down the halls. "Catch me if you can!" He taunted.

"Pika! Pika!" Pikachu reiterated.

The grunts kept running. "We found another intruder, call for reinforcements.

Ash turned a bend and rushed through a pair of double doors to find himself in a smaller laboratory. Several chemicals lined the shelves and a bearded scientist seemed to be taking notes on two beakers at the center table. The scientist noticed him and gasped.

"Do not come any closer! I surrender!"

Ash stared at him with a blank look.

"Look, whatever you do," the man spoke with a heavy German (or whatever the Pokemon equivalent of that is) accent, "Do not mix ze red chemicals with ze blue chemicals!"

"Pika?" The mouse scratched his head confused. "Why?" Ash asked.

The man stared at him as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Because! Red and Blue make PURPLE! And Purple goes BOOM!"

Cue confused looks. "Eh?" "Pi?"

Suddenly the doors burst open to allow several grunts. Ash grinned. "Pikachu use Thunderbolt!"

Before they could respond, the mouse had sent several thousand volts of electricity through them, causing them to crumple into a heap of paralyzed bodies. Ash gave the mouse an affectionate rubbing. "Great job Pikachu!"

The scientist gasped. "Don't do that again! If you're careful, you might mix the chemicals together! And that means you'll mix ze Red with ze Blue, which makes Purple! And Purple goes…"

He was suddenly interrupted by the door slamming open to reveal a teen a little older than him wearing a black jacket and grey sweatpants. He had a wool scarf wrapped around him and he was followed by a huge orange dragon aka Charizard.

"So you're the one who is disrupting Lysandre's operations." The teen observed.

Ash frowned. He had recognized him from somewhere, but where? "Who are you?"

"I'm Alain and this is my Charizard. And I must ask, who are you and why are you trying to stop Lysandre's work?"

Ash gasped. His name was Alain. He was the guy who had hurt and betrayed Mairin. He hadn't heard the full details, but seeing the girl clinging to Ruby, broken hearted and feeling pathetic and worthless, he had quietly vowed to ensure that whoever this Alain guy was, he would pay for hurting his friend so badly.

"I'm Ash Ketchum and this is Pikachu. I don't know much about Lysandre, but I know a lot about you. You're Alain, Professor Sycamore's former assistant. You left him to explore Mega Evolution and become strong. You're Alain, Marin's friend. You ditched her and betrayed her trust in you to become strong. Let me tell you that that's not how you become strong. You're a horrible person if you think that in order to be strong you can just push people around, break their hearts, and make them cry.

"I'm Ash Ketchum, and you're going to get hurt real bad!"

Yes, here he was and Alain was going to get hurt real bad.

*And now the showdown between our heroes and Team Flare begins. Who will win? Will Ash defeat Alain? Will Serena escape the Flare grunts? And what about Adrian? *

* * *

Lysandre scowled at the screens. Ever since the power went out, he had been rushing grunts out to find the source of this attack. So far he had intruders coming from three angles. He had sent scientists after two of them and Alain to deal with the last one.

"How is it going Head Scientist Xerosic?"

The portly man glanced up to the director. "Almost done. I've sent the bulk of the research to our Kanto friends, but beside that I just need to make a few more calculations before it's done."

"Interesting work you're up to."

The duo and the remaining grunts turned around to find a raven haired teen entering the laboratory, two younger children at his side. "So this is the head of Team Flare: Lysandre of Lysandre Labs. How interesting."

"Who are you?" The tall man demanded.

"No one special. Just someone who cares about the bonds between humans and Pokémon. And if what I'm hearing is right, you're trying to break the bonds. And I can't let that happen."

"Who do you think you are?" One grunt yelled.

"Yeah, go home or get ready for a beating!"

Lysandre nodded, releasing his Pyroar and Gyarados, joined by several Mightyena, Drapion, and Weavile. "Whoever you are, I cannot allow you leave. Prepare to be destroyed."

Adrian glanced at the twins. "Ready?" He asked, reaching for something under his shirt.

The doors of the lab slammed shut, cutting view of the inside of the lab, but several voices could be heard.

"With me now!"

"Woah! What are those?"

"Aren't those Le…"

*Explosion*

"Yikes! Return fire!"

"My friends, respond to my heart and…"

*Flashes of light and energy burst*

"No way! They can do that?"

*Loud screeching and battle cries combined with explosions*

"Look out!"

"No!"

* * *

Oh wow! This is a lot to take in. Honestly this is how I wanted Ash and Alain's confrontation to go. Ash needs to be fired up like this. If you looked carefully, you'll see a lot of spoilers of what is to come in the future of this fic.

I hope you liked my usage of the Kalos Quest theme. I've been planning that for a very long time and yes, using theme songs as inspirational speeches will become a running gag here. Let me know any other themes you want me to try to incorporate.

The Red and Blue makes Purple thing comes from a Vacation Bible School video I watched when I was in Middle school. Yes, I did VBS and am proud to be part of it.

Please let me know what you think of this fic so far. I finished Y and need friend codes for the friend safari. If you're interested PM me and we can work something out.

Please **Follow** and **Review**.

May the Force of the Lord God Almighty be with you Always!

UCCMaster


	8. Chapter 8

Hey everyone, UCCMaster here!

It's time to post another awesome chapter of the Eevee Trainer! Yeah! I'd like to thank Epocity for giving me the advice on my chapters. It's official now: Adrian is my Gary Stu. There's not much unfortunately I can do about it. I'll try to counter balance as much as I can, but there will be some moments in the future that I just cannot avoid. But then again...I've seen Gary Stus in pretty much every fic so...

Anyways, enjoy this next chatper and next up comes the much awaited Renaissance Conference.

I do not own Pokémon

* * *

Serena spared a glance behind her shoulder: yep, the Flare grunts were still on her tail. Unfortunately, they had summoned several large wolf Pokémon to pursue her and they were rapidly gaining.

*Having infiltrated the secret laboratory of Team Flare, our heroes rush to buy Adrian time to stop their sinister plans.*

"That's far enough young lady."

Serena skidded to a stop before several Flare grunts led by an orange haired woman. She wore the most ridiculous looking orange and white suit and skirt. Her eyes were covered by a mysterious pair of goggles. Personally, Serena felt like gagging at the woman's outfit.

"Who do you think you are? You're barging into Team Flare's lair and attacking our generators."

Serena froze. The woman, while dressed oddly, didn't fail to be intimidating. Serena heard a series of growls from behind her, indicating that the grunts pursuing her had now caught up. Eevee growled at the hounds, his eyes waiting for the order to attack. But Serena honestly couldn't keep up her confidence. She was surrounded by Team Flare grunts and their Pokémon, only having three Pokémon to battle twelve. She couldn't handle them all…she was doomed. For the first time since the beginning of their journey, Ash wasn't there to comfort her, to stand beside her and give her strength. She was truly alone.

"Vui!"

Serena froze, taking a glance at her fox. "Vui! Eevee!"

The fox seemed to be reminding her of an important fact. _"Remember, for every grunt that we don't pull away from the main means one more grunt that could overwhelm Ash and Adrian."_ Alley's voice reminded her.

Her Pokeballs flashed open, releasing Delphox and Pancham who took their places around her, ready to protect her. "Pan, Pancham!" "Fox! Dell!"

Serena shed a tear, kneeling down to rub her team's heads. "You guys want to fight for me too?"

"Pan!" "Vui!" "Fox!"

Serena, having found her resolve, stood up. "I am Serena. I cannot allow you to get away with your crimes against Pokémon. You clearly caused the explosion and I'm guessing that wasn't an accident. Whoever you are, you're going down!"

The admin cooed. "Aww, you're so…pathetic. Grunts take her down."

"Mightyena use Dark Pulse!"

"Use Bite!"

"Strike with Shadow Ball!"

Serena cringed. That was a lot of attacks. "Eevee use Swift! Pancham, Stone Edge! Delphox, Fire Blast!"

To her glee, the attacks hit dead on. Grunts gasped as wolves were hurled back by the combination of attacks. Serena hugged her Pokémon. "Great job guys!"

"What?" the admin gasped, "You just defeated a series of Flare trained Pokémon! How dare you?"

Serena, now brimming with confidence, smirked. "It seems that your grunts need to practice battling a real trainer. Now," she called, raising her hand into the air, "Eevee, finish them with Hyper Beam!"

The admin gasped, quickly releasing her own Pokémon. "Druddigon, use Dragon Pulse! Mightyena use Roar!"

Eevee released his Hyper Beam, only for it to be countered by the sphere of Dragon energy. The wolf dodged the strike and let out an ear piercing Roar. Serena tried to block the sound with her hands but the attack still left her ears ringing. When she glanced at the Pokémon, she was shocked to find that they had all vanished. "What? What did you do to my Pokémon?"

"Aww, looks like your Pokémon got scared away." The admin taunted, "Druddigon, finish her! Dragon Pulse!"

Serena cringed, bracing for the worst when a new voice intervened. "Protect!"

When she didn't feel the pain of the incoming energy, she opened her eyes to find a black and yellow feline positioned in front of her, a protect shield blocking the pulse for hitting her.

"Now Dazzling Gleam!"

A second feline leaped into the fray, this one a comforting lilac color. She quickly released a powerful flash of Fairy typed energy, blinding Serena. When she opened her eyes, both the wolf and dragon lay on the floor, unconscious.

"That certainly was dazzling." A familiar voice next to her muttered.

Serena hugged the lilac haired woman. "Alley, I'm so glad you're here. Thanks for the rescue!"

The woman chuckled. "It's no problem. I knew my idiot of a boyfriend would forget to send help to you, so once I had finished up my job, I came to help you."

She turned to the gawking admin. "As for you, I think it's time you ran for your life."

The woman gestured towards her grunts. "Let's go!" she called, returning her Pokémon and dashing out the opposite exit.

Serena turned to her friend. "Why did you let them escape?"

"I didn't let them escape," the lilac haired woman countered, "I let them run…right into the Police barricade set up by Officer Jenny just outside the compound."

Serena grinned. "I like your thinking, but what about us?"

Alley chuckled. "Don't worry my boyfriend's cousin, we have a plan…once we find Ash and Adrian."

Serena gasped. "That's right! We need to find them. Who knows what kind of danger they're in?"

"Knowing Adrian, probably a lot. Ash is probably fine…Adrian is probably in over his head."

"Why do you talk like that about Adrian? Don't you love and trust him?"

The girl smiled knowingly. "Oh, I love him alright. But he's had a bad habit of assuming his battling ability can overcome all obstacles."

"I'm guess they don't."

"Oh I need to tell you the story of when he got lost in the Celadon Department store. He can't fathom fashion for the love of Arceus. He's so lucky he's got me bail him out all the time."

The girls giggled as they headed in the direction of their boyfriends (or soon to be).

* * *

The raven haired teen slammed into the wall hard and groaned. _That Mega Charizard really was something_ , Ash thought, grimacing. Sure he's fought Mega Evolutions before, specifically Korrina's Mega Lucario, but this Charizard was in a league of its own.

When he had first challenged Alain to the battle, much to the dismay of the scientist, he had figured that Greninja would be the perfect counter. What he hadn't counted on was Charizard's type changing from Fire Flying to Fire Dragon. _Well, Iris got her wish, a Dragon typed Charizard_. Ash groaned, his mind flickering back to the wannabe Dragon Master. _And with a Dragon Typed Charizard comes all the type resistances._ Now two Pokémon later, Ash was stumped on how to beat such an overpowered Pokémon. Currently Pikachu bravely stood his ground against the dragon, his cheeks still sizzling with electricity.

"Charizard, use Dragon Claw!"

Oh, not that again! Somehow, Mega Charizard had gotten a crazy boost in its physical strength. Ok, not crazy, an insane boost. "Pikachu, counter with Iron Tail!"

The mouse obeyed, blocking the overpowered claws with his hardened tail. For a brief second, the two were locked in position, tail and claws straining for victory. But only a brief second before the mouse was flung back against the wall.

"I've got you!" Ash dived and shielded Pikachu from the impact of slamming into the wall. But by now, Ash's own back was aching. He needed a way to end this…quick or else his back may never be the same.

"Come on, what can we do?" he muttered, glancing around the room for an advantage. There wasn't that much. Just a few desks, a hiding scientist, several beakers filled with red and blue chemicals, and…wait a second…didn't the weird scientist say something about the chemicals going boom?

"Pikachu, use Quick Attack towards Charizard!"

"Pika?" The mouse stared at his trainer in shock. Was Ash asking him to face that immensely overpowered Dragon Claw again?

"Just trust me!" Ash smiled. Oh he hadn't done something this crazy since well…Sinnoh. Again, there it was with Dawn's influence on him. Somehow traveling with Serena was like traveling with Dawn all over again.

Sighing, the mouse lunged towards the dragon.

"Charizard, Dragon Claw!"

"Now Pikachu, Spin and use Iron Tail!" Ash called.

Now understanding, Pikachu found his muscles following routines he hadn't done in over two years. Spinning, the mouse sped right past the fizzing claws of doom and landed a powerful Iron Tail, hurling the black dragon back towards the table…full of fizzing chemicals.

Realizing what Ash's plans were, Alain cupped his hands around his mouth. "Charizard, use your tail to stop your fall."

A powerful flaming tail just managed to prevent the dragon from completely fall on the table of chemicals. "Now use Flamethrower, full power!"

"Pikachu, Counter Shield!"

"What?" the other teen called in disbelief.

Pikachu grinned as he began to use an old technique, electricity flaring in a series of rings extending outwards. The electric rings met the flames head-on knocking back the flames and striking the poor dragon. The electric shock was just enough for the dragon to fall backwards, smashing the table and its contents.

"NO!" the scientist screamed.

The scarf wearing teen glared at him. "What is it?"

"You've done zit now!" he cried, "You mixed ze Red with ze Blue, which make Purple."

Ash grinned. "And purple goes…"

BOOM!

When the smoke cloud cleared, Ash observed the scene in mild amusement. Both dragon and trainer were covered in purple spots. Melodramatically, both of them fainted on the spot. Ash turned to Pikachu rubbing its head affectionately. "So that's what he meant by boom."

"Pikachu!" the mouse laughed, before noting out Ash's revisit to his old battle style. "Pika, Pikachu!"

"Yeah I know right?" Ash chuckled, rubbing the back of his head. "I somehow had forgotten all about those strategies until earlier this evening.

"You know, we definitely could have used those skills and strategies back in Unova. I still don't get why we lost. We probably could have Counter Shielded Cameron's Lucario, you could have spin dodged Trip's Superior to death." He thought for a moment, "You know, maybe it's something about being in Kalos. I mean, we've never been stronger than before. You, me, Greninja, Hawlucha, Talonflame, Noibat, and even Goodra, we've been on a winning streak I haven't had since…Sinnoh."

"Pikapika, Kachupi?"

"Serena?" Ash stared at his mouse in surprise. "You think she's the one behind my success?"

"Pikapika! Pikapi pika Kachupi!" The mouse made a little heart shape with his paws.

Ash's eyes widened. "Are you saying that I'm in love with Serena?"

"Pikachu!" The mouse nodded.

Ash thought hard. He tried to remember what Adrian had mentioned and then his own observations. Serena really did complete him. Sure, in many ways they were different. Ash was a battle maniac, Serena was a fashion girl. Ash was outgoing, Serena was shy. But just because they were different didn't mean that they couldn't meet in the middle. Under his mentorship, Serena was a very competent battler. Serena now was much more outgoing as well. Was Serena trying to work with him to the point that they would be equals? Come to think of it, her own performance routines weren't based on flashiness and apparel, but friendship and strength. Honestly he couldn't wait to see her new Eevee on the stage.

They had never separated since they had first reunited. Ash and Misty as well as Iris had often broken up and gone off in their own separate ways. Sure they always reunited, but it just wasn't the same as it was with someone like Dawn or Serena. May was different. They both agreed to disagree. May was primarily focused on her contests and Ash was focused on his gym battles. If they had time, they would come around to support each other, but most of their journey together actually was quite separate. Dawn was clear in her own journey, but she made a point of always supporting Ash regardless of her own dreams. Ash in return always made time to support her during contests.

So did that mean he loved Dawn as well? Well...something was different with Serena than it was with Dawn. Maybe it was age. When he had first met Dawn, she was ten and he was thirteen. In the beginning, Dawn practically viewed Ash as an older brother. Whenever they hugged or high fived, Ash didn't feel a special spark, and ultimately she decided to go off and follow her own dreams in Johto. Serena on the other hand was just a few months younger than Ash. She definitely didn't treat Ash as an older brother. While Ash and Dawn complemented each other, Serena completed him. Dawn was never there to comfort him whenever he was down, but Serena was. While Dawn knew ultimately her dreams would cause them to diverge, Serena never had made a mention of leaving him.

She was a light in his darkness, a shimmer in all the dullness of life. He never had told anyone, but he had come to Kalos depressed. Sure he was excited that he was exploring a new region, but he sorta knew that he would be destined to lose. When he first challenged Viola, he had suffered a terrible loss. He thought it was going to be a repeat of Unova. But when Serena showed up, suddenly he felt reinvigorated to battle again, leading Fletching to a victory against Viola's Vivillion. It felt as though the world suddenly had purpose again. Now, eight badges later, he was still getting steadily stronger, definitely stronger than he was in Unova. Greninja far outclassed any of his Unova starters. Talonflame could fly circles around Unfezant, Hawlucha was the first heavy duty fighting type since Infernape. Noibat was still young, but was far better trained than Scraggy and Levanny. Goodra, well, let's say he was the powerhouse he was missing in Unova, far outclassing Snivy and Palpitoad. And in all of it, Serena had been there. She had been a key part in Fletchling's evolution to Fletchinder, Goomy's evolution to Siggloo, and his later evolution to Goodra. She had helped Ash refine his dancing battle style with Hawlucha. Iris and May never did that for him.

So was he in love with Serena? Well, she was also gorgeous. He may have been a super dense boy with a Pikachu, but even he could tell that Serena always looked her best and his nose bleed earlier that evening should have made things very clear how attractive the blonde was. Not only that, but she was brave, strong, and supported him. She also had been showing a lot of signs of waning to close the gap.

"You know what Pikachu? I think I do love her."

"PIKACHU?" The mouse's eyes bulged.

"Is it really such a big deal? I just figured it out myself. But how am I going to tell her?" Ash pondered. Oh well, another question to ask Adrian...wait, where was Adrian?

"Pikachu, let's go! Adrian might need our help!"

*Having both avenged a friend and realized his romantic feelings towards a certain young lady, our hero rushes off to find the remainder of our heroes.*

* * *

This sadly is one of my shorter chapters. I simply couldn't find a way to extend it. I already got really wordy with the Ash realizes his feelings towards Serena thing.

No offense to Ash and his Unova adventures, but I felt like Unova was better named Ash bashing. Don't get me wrong, the story was amazing...just not Ash. I have really high hopes for Ash in the Kalos league.

When we get back, Ruby and Mairin confront Alain, Ash enters the Kalos League, and Serena prepares for her Master Class Performance. But what happened with Adrian? Well...we'll see.

Please let me know what you think of this fic so far. I finished Y and need friend codes for the friend safari. If you're interested PM me and we can work something out.

Please **Follow** and **Review**.

May the Force of the Lord God Almighty be with you Always!

UCCMaster


	9. Chapter 9

Hey everyone, UCCMaster here!

Sorry I've been gone for so long. I've been having serious writer's block. Anyways, it's time to get moving. I've been loving the most recent episodes of Pokemon. Poor Serena, she lost the Master Class Performance, but who didn't see that coming? We all knew she was going to lose. Anyways, this will be the last chapter with Mairin and Alain for now, so I hope you enjoy this very emotional chapter.

Anyways, enjoy this next chapter and next up comes the much awaited Renaissance Conference.

I do not own Pokémon

* * *

"So at what time do you call this?" Clemont rubbed his eyes sleepily.

The glasses wearing gym leader had been rudely interrupted from his sleep after a familiar group of heroes teleported into the room. Needless the say, Bonnie woke up as well.

"Where were you?" The small girl demanded, her hands clenched at her side. "Wherever you went, you forgot to take me and my big brother!"

Suddenly a thought hit her, causing her lips to curve into a sly grin. "Unless you guys were having some special alone time…"

Serena's face turned beat red as she raised her hands in reply. "No, no, it was nothing like that! Really!" she protested.

"What are you talking about?" Ash tilted his head in confusion.

Cue facepalm from the group. "Ash, she's referring to whether or not you and Serena were acting inappropriately which; let's face it, isn't really what you'd expect from you two." Alley explained.

"But it's so cute! And probably hot too!"

Ruby shot his sister a glare. "Really Sapph?"

"What? We all know you and you know who will be doing it soon enough."

Awkward silence. Then the entire crowd blew up, minus Ash.

"Sapphire, that was going too far!" Alley reprimanded the ten year old girl.

"I don't want to do...you know...right now...with...her..." Ruby stumbled through his outburst.

However, Bonnie and Sapphire were literally crying out from laughing at the comeback. Just then, a loud knock jolted the group out of their fight. Adrian slowly opened the door to reveal a red eyed but really angry Nurse Joy. He gulped. "Ermm...hi Nurse Joy...is there anything I can help you with?"

The literally steaming nurse nodded. "As a matter of fact, there is. As you are aware, it is around four in the morning. Many trainers are still asleep, so I'd suggest you do the same, or at least keep it down...IS THAT UNDERSTOOD!" The group's hair jumped in terror at the normally calm nurse.

"Yes ma'am!" The group chimed as they raced back to bed.

In a complete one eighty, the nurse calmed down. "Good, I'll see you in the morning." She smiled before closing the door.

Ash and Adrian shared a look of sheer horror. "Dang," Adrian muttered, "Those nurses, they're scary man, real scary."

"And there's one for every Pokemon Center throughout the world." Ash added on, "It makes you wonder how they manage to deal with all the abusive trainers who enter their Pokemon Centers."

The group spent a moment to process Ash's comment before it hit them. "Ugh!" The group cried in horror, no longer able to sleep without dreaming of Nurse Joys with evil, psychopathic smiles.

* * *

The group woke up later that morning, having finally found sleep without dreams of evil nurses. After getting ready, the gang opened the door to find a familiar red haired girl dressed in green. "Good morning Ruby!" Mairin smiled.

"Good morning Ruby's girlfriend!" Sapphire responded in similar fashion, causing the two preteens to blush.

"Sapph, knock it off."

"You still upset about last night, aren't you? Well, we'll see who says I told you so a few years from now."

"Sapp!"

"Mairin noticed the older lilac haired teen and walked up to her. "What's going on over there?"

"Oh, nothing to worry about. You'll understand when you're older...which I wish they would as well." She muttered the last part under her breath.

The girl stared at him in confusion. "Excuse me?"

"It's nothing...really. How about we head down for breakfast and they'll meet us there when they're ready?"

"...ok..."

When Ruby and Sapphire finally joined the rest of the group, they found Ash already chomping down on his third plate, Serena smiling at her crush's antics, Bonnie slyly grinning at the two, and Alley, Clemont, Mairin, and Adrian engaging in light discussion. "So are you going to compete in the League this year?" Adrian was asking the girl.

"Nah, not this year. I never got around to getting the Gym Badges and catching new Pokemon for my team. For the most part, I've just been following Alain around Kalos and Hoenn."

Alley smiled sadly, "I'm sorry to hear that. I hope your Chespin gets better and maybe you can compete next year."

"That sounds like a great idea." Clemont added. "I'd really look forward to battling you here at the Lumiose City Gym."

The girl's eyes widened in awe. "Really? You'd battle me? That's awesome. Chespie, did you hear..." She stopped as she remembered her faithful starter's fate.

Sapph made eye contact with her brother. "Go on, she needs you."

"Right." Ruby nodded, making his way towards the now depressed girl and placing his hand on her shoulder. "Hey, I know it hurts, but you gotta keep your hopes high. Chepsie will get better, I'm certain of it."

The girl smiled. "Thanks Ruby."

Suddenly, the TV screen caught her eye. "Isn't that Lysandre Labs?"

 _"This just in," the anchor announced, "Last night, Lysandre Labs was discovered to be the headquarters of Team Flare, a crime organization that has been behind several thefts and attacks within the last year. Lysandre himself has been found guilty of leading the organization along with several admins and scientists who were also arrested in the labs. The Police have yet to disclose who led them to Team Flare."_

Clemont gasped at the information. "Weren't we just there yesterday afternoon?"

"That's right," Bonnie confirmed, "Hold on a second, Mairin, didn't you say that your friend Alain worked for Lysandre..."

The girl didn't respond, still staring at the screen in horror. "No...it...it can't be."

The screen had changed to show Lysandre and several Team Flare admins and grunts being led away by the police officers. However, that wasn't what Mairin had been worried about: it was a familiar teen with black hair and a wool scarf around his neck being shoved into a police vehicle as well.

The group remained speechless. Ash, being the one who fought Alain, frowned. He hadn't meant for Mairin to see this. He turned to Pikachu. "Do you think she's going to be alright?"

The girl gave them their answer by standing up and running off, sobbing as she went. Ruby close behind her. Adrian gave his girlfriend a look. The lilac haired woman nodded. "Come on Sapph, let's go catch up with Ruby."

Ash stood up to join them when Adrian interrupted. "Ash we can't."

"Why not?" The raven haired teen protested. "She clearly needs our help."

"No she doesn't," the man interrupted, "She needs Ruby and Sapphire's help. You, on the other hand, need to get ready for the Pokemon League. We've got less than a week left and it takes three days to get there. Ruby, Sapphire, and Alley will meet up with us later. The least we can do is help with the packing and make our way out there."

Ash thought about it for a moment before glumly nodding. "I guess you're right. I just hope Mairin will be okay. I mean, I'm the one who brought Alain down, I feel partially responsible for the whole thing."

The group turned to Ash in surprise. "You never told us that."

The raven haired teen scratched his head sheepishly. "Heh, heh, I guess I forgot to mention it."

* * *

Mairin reached the familiar gates of the Pokemon Laboratory within five minutes of running. Once there, she took wiped her tears aside and knocked loudly on the doors.

The doors opened to reveal one of the professor's assistants. "Mairin, what are you doing here?"

She sobbed softly. "Did you see the news?"

The assistant shook her head. "No, what happened?"

"I'm afraid it's not good." The pair turned to see the professor stroll towards them. "Alain has been arrested on charges of working for Team Flare. Now the Police wants to know if I knew anything about it."

"Alain? With Team Flare?" The woman gasped. "Oh my!"

"Yes, I'm afraid it's much worse than just that. Apparently there's an entire investigation going on within the entire Pokemon science community to find out how deep this apparent corruption has gone...starting with me."

Mairin couldn't believe it. "What? They're saying that you're part of Team Flare as well?"

The sad man shook his head. "No, but they're wondering if I had any ties to Team Flare. My sources tell me that there's even an investigation on the Pokemon G-men since they were seen trying to cover up the scene as well.

"I was just on my way to the station right now to chat with Alain. I should be back this afternoon."

"Professor Sycamore, I want to come too." Mairin requested.

The professor stared at the girl. "Why?"

"Because Alain was my friend too." She explained, her hands now at her hips. "I want to know if he really was my friend or not."

"Mairin, I'm not so sure this is a good..."

"Professor, I need to see him." The girl repeated.

The professor stared hard and long into the girl's eyes before sighing. "Fine, I guess you can come along. But you need to stay with me at all times, it that understood?"

The girl nodded. "I understand."

"Good, now..."

"Hold it right there!"

The group turned in surprise to see a familiar lilac haired woman flanked by a pair of twins standing behind them. "Don't think that you can just go off like that without us." Alley grinned.

"We're coming too." Ruby added.

Sapph giggled. "Besides, Ruby misses you already."

The professor groaned. He hoped his jeep would be able to hold all of them. At least he could chat with the attractive lilac haired woman.

* * *

Alain sat in the interrogation room alone. His feet and hands were shackled to the table and his Pokeballs were taken away from him. The room was pale white and a single black screen covered one side.

He hadn't really understood how he got here. When Lysandre had approached the teen about helping him explore Mega Evolution, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to get stronger while learning Mega Evolution. Charizard had immediately shown progress and thus he began his quest for strength. He had been a little suspicious when Lysandre didn't want Professor Sycamore to know about his exploits, but those had been put to rest after being explained that Professor Sycamore's research could be dangerous in the wrong hands. Lysandre wanted the energy to be used for peaceful purposes, though some force might be necessary to prove their strength.

So he had been doing quite well up until Mairin had showed up. From that point on, he had two goals, to get stronger, and to keep Mairin safe. He cared for her, he really did, but he just couldn't handle the thought of her getting hurt. But his adventures kept ending up in dangerous situations. First was Spear Pillar, where Rayquaza had gotten out of hand. Then the battle between Groudon and Kyogre. Then finally, he had had enough. This was too dangerous for Mairin and he needed to do this alone.

He hadn't meant to shout at the girl and call her weak, but...well...he needed her to stay away from him. He wasn't strong enough to protect her and so it was best if she went off on her own. But even then, she still got hurt. Her Chepsin had mysteriously gone into a comatose state, leaving her miserable and sobbing. That had been the last straw.

He didn't really remember much after that. He remembered working for Lysandre and his specialists. He fought for him but more importantly, he fought for her, battling for a chance to cure Chepsie and bring a smile back to the girl's face.

But then...he met a raven haired teen who was sneaking around the laboratory. He didn't recognize the teen, but the teen recognized him. Said he was someone named Ash Ketchum. This Ketchum guy called him a traitor, someone who had hurt everyone around him in the name of strength. But that wasn't true! He was getting stronger so that he could protect the ones he cared about, not hurt them. He would show him...he would protect them. He would cure Chepsie and Mairin would be proud of him. He would...

"Hey kid, someone's here to see you."

The door slowly opened to reveal, to his surprise, Professor Sycamore. The man slowly took a seat across from him. "Hello Alain." He greeted in monotone.

"Professor..."

"Are you aware you were working with Team Flare?"

"Um...yeah. Lysandre said they were helping us with his research on Mega Evolution."

"Is that so. Are you aware of who Team Flare is?"

"A group of environmentalists, that's what Lysandre said."

"And you believed him?"

Alain starred in surprise. "Umm...yeah. I did."

The professor nodded. "I see. Well, I hope you can understand what you've done. How it's affecting all of us now."

"What do you mean?"

"Since you used to be my field assistant and technically still are my assistant on my payroll when this happened, the Pokemon League has accused me of support a terrorists. They've threatened to shut down my laboratory and cut off my funding."

Alain gasped. "Professor...I didn't know."

"Of course you didn't." The professor curly remarked. "Nobody did."

"Regardless," he continued, "I'm left with two choices. I can either take the fire for one of my employees who went behind my back and aided a terrorist organization or I can save my own hide by firing him and having him banned from the Pokemon science community."

"Professor!" Alain cried. "Please don't do this. I loved being your assistant. You can't kick me out like this."

The professor remained silent. Alain tried to meet his eyes. "Please don't do this to me! I beg of you..."

"I haven't made my decision yet. I'll be sure to inform you when you are released. I've already filed a claim of character for you, saying that you were innocent in all of this, but we'll see how the Pokemon League will take it.

"In the meantime, someone else wants to speak with you."

With that the Professor stood up, and left.

"Professor!" The teen cried. "Professor!"

But the man had already left.

Alain slammed his head on the desk in disgust. "How dare he betray me like that? I'm innocent here. I was trying to help him, but can he see that...no..." He grumbled. "He'll pay for that...Once I get out of here I'll..."

"Alain?"

The teen froze, finally noticing a familiar red haired girl enter the room. "M...m...Mairin?" His eyes grew wide as he realized he had been caught in the middle of cussing out the Professor.

The girl sat down across from him. Her eyes not meeting his. After a moment, the girl spoke. "Are you stronger now?"

Alain's eyes widened at her bitter tone. "What...what do you mean?"

"That's what you told me. I was keeping you from getting stronger. So...are you stronger now?"

Alain thought back upon his words before gasping in shock. "No, that's not what I meant. What I meant was..."

"What? What did you mean by 'You shouldn't stay with me. I can't get stronger when I'm with you'? Huh, huh?" The girl shouted. She had snapped completely. "I'm tired of your excuses Alain. I tried to be strong for you, but you wouldn't have it. Now, when I need you the most...you're in jail. So I hope you're stronger now, Alain, because I'm not hindering you anymore."

"Mairin...I"

"Shut up!" The girl cried, tears streaming down her cheeks. "I wanted to be your friend. You were so cool. We were supposed to become strong together. You were going to teach me how to Mega Evolve."

"People can't Mega Evolve," Alain muttered.

"It doesn't matter! I was going to win the Pokemon League, get Gym Badges, meet tons of Pokemon and catch Chikorita. But then I met you and bam...I don't know why...but I just threw it all away to follow you. You looked like you needed a friend, so I tried to become your friend. A load of BS that did for me. So you know what? Go to hell! I hope you're stronger now." With that, the girl stood up and ran into the arms of a boy he didn't recognize.

"I'm finished here Ruby, we can go now."

The boy nodded, but not before glare hard and long at the teen.

 _I hope you're happy now._

Alain glanced at the boy in confusion. Had he just used Telepathy on him? What was going on? But before he could ask, the couple had left.

I hope you're happy now. He wasn't happy...he was miserable. All because he trusted that despicable Lysandre.

* * *

Ash and his friends stood in front of the huge Colosseum. This was it. Ash had finally arrived at the Renaissance Conference. And this time, he was going to win it.

"You ready Pikachu?"

"Pikachu!" The mouse pumped his fist.

The group chuckled at the sigh.

*Having just arrived at the Renaissance Conference, our heroes begin to prepare themselves for Ash's next cha-*

"Did you feel that?" Ruby turned to Sapphire.

The girl paled before nodding. "Yeah, it's him."

Bonnie stared at the twins. "Who? Who's here?"

*I'm trying to talk here!*

The twins ignored the narrator, staring at the group before looking at Adrian. "You're so in trouble." Ruby stated.

"Why?" The young man raised his eyebrow.

"It's him, he's here." Sapphire replied.

Bonnie had enough. "Who's here? What's the big deal about someone being here?"

"The boss..." Ruby muttered.

"Thee chubby boss." Sapphire echoed in fear.

"He's here!"

* * *

I hope this is what you've been hoping for. Anyways, a shout out for whoever can guess who this Boss is and where I got 'Thee chubby boss' reference from.

Please let me know what you think of this fic so far. I finished Y and need friend codes for the friend safari. If you're interested PM me and we can work something out.

Please **Follow** and **Review**.

May the Force of the Lord God Almighty be with you Always!

UCCMaster


	10. Chapter 10

Hey everyone, UCCMaster here!

This is really just a filler as well as some good banter. I'm bringing in a lot of people. Nobody's guessed the boss...so...no shoutouts.

Anyways, enjoy this next chapter.

I do not own Pokémon

* * *

"He's here!"

"Who's this chubby guy?" Ash stared at the twins in confusion.

"Pikachu." His companion mumbled in agreement.

Adrian, who had previously been frozen in his tracks immediately took action. "It's nothing guys. Just someone I know who I need to meet with that's all!"

Alley nodded in agreement. "That's right! We'll be back soon. Ok? Bye!"

With that, the four friends dashed off towards the stadium.

Ash turned to his original party. "...what..."

*To the surprise of Ash and his friends, Serena's cousin Adrian, his girlfriend Alley, and the twins Ruby and Sapphire have mysteriously vanished during the Kalos League Registration. What sort of advenutres will happen today?*

"You know, I feel like there should be a theme song here." Ash mumbled under his breath.

"Do you know what they're talking about Serena?" Clemont asked.

The girl shook her head. "Sorry, I haven't a single clue."

"I'm confused!" Bonnie grumbled.

"Hey, is that Ash?"

The group turned around to see a very studious trainer running their direction. "Hey look, it's Sawyer!" Bonnie exclaimed.

The newbie trainer reached the group, panting hard. "Hey guys, long time no see."

Ash grinned. "It sure has been. How have you been Sawyer?"

"Good!" The trainer pulled out his badge case, revealing eight familiar pieces of metal. "I just caught my eighth gym badge two weeks ago and rushed here as fast as I could."

"That's great!" Ash applauded, "So you're competing in the Kalos League too?"

The boy nodded. "Sure am! Sceptile and I are psyched to be here!"

Ash grinned, a small memory sparking in the back of his head. "That's great, I remember when my Sceptile and I battled in a League."

The boy's eyes widened. "You have a Sceptile too?"

"Umm...yeah, he helped me with both the Evergrande Conference and Lily of the Valley Conference."

"Hold on a second..." The boy interrupted, "You've been in several leagues?"

The raven haired teen nodded. It was pretty obvious right...he was definitely over the age of eleven. "Yeah...why do you ask?"

The boy stared at him in disbelief. "I don't know, you just didn't strike me as a veteran league trainer, you know? I've only seen you use Kalos Pokemon so I assumed you started here in Kalos."

Clemont nodded. "You know Ash, I've wondered the same thing. You have several teams, why don't you use them in your battle rotations?"

"Well, I sorta like starting afresh every time I enter a new region, which means whole new friends and new adventures without having to be singled out as a veteran trainer." Ash scratched his head sheepishly. "Pikachu's the only one who's been with me all six regions."

"You've been in six Pokemon Leagues?" The group stared at the boy in disbelief, though Serena was more in a mode of admiration.

Ash thought for a moment, counting on his fingers. "Technically seven. I've only won once, and it was an unofficial league, so I didn't really think much of it."

Sawyer grabbed his head in agony. "I'm so going to be crushed in the league. I mean, you're a six league veteran and probably half the people here all are veteran trainers like you. I'm doomed!"

"Ash, could we see your records?" Clemont requested.

"Umm...I guess. I've never really looked at them before. But can we first register? I'm super psyched about this tournament and I know I'm going to win it!"

The group sweatdropped at the teen's confidence. "Right, then!" Serena agreed, "Let's go!"

* * *

Adrian stood outside patiently. If Ruby and Sapphire's sense were correct, which they rarely weren't, then his little ruse had caught up to him. It had taken a lot of guts to leave his post and travel around the entirety of Kalos without asking for permission. He quietly hoped he wouldn't get docked to much for his stunt.

"It's about time you got here." He called out to the figure behind him.

"I take it the twins detected me." A cool voice responded.

Adrian nodded. The voice continued. "You know, you pulled a pretty crazy stunt back there. You actually covered your tracks pretty well. Took me a while to find you."

"But you did find me."

"I always find people. It's my job."

The two remained in silence, before the figure continued. "So, what did you find?"

Adrian chucked a small memory stick to the man behind him. "Team Flare was the ones behind the development of the tech. I was able to pull the entire file though...after it was sent to Kanto."

"Hmm...I'll have a team investigate it. You know where it was going?"

"Where else?"

"Ah...I see."

"So," Adrian grumbled, "Can we please attack now? I've been dying to get my hands on those guys."

"Not yet Adrian. Not yet. Timing's not right yet. Patience, boy—"

"I'm not a little kid anymore."

"I didn't say you were. I called a boy because you were jumping around and tried to sneak off when you got a challenger on his way."

"I do?"

"You've been gone three months. You never know when I might pop a challenger on you."

"Who is it?"

"You've never met him, but I think you're just what he needs."

"Oh, so that's what you've been wanting."

The two resumed their comfortable silence. "I see you've been traveling with company."

"Yeah, my cousin and..."

"Ash Ketchum...that's a name I've been very interested in."

"You know," he added, "I still want him."

"I don't get you." Adrian retorted. "Sure, he's got a good heart, but do you really think he's the kinda guy for this job? He's pretty set on the 'becoming the Pokemon Master' thing."

"Weren't you the one who said that people are pretty ignorant and needed help to find their true path? Weren't you the one who said that what people dream about isn't always where their true potential lies? Same goes for Ash. He just needs a good nudge in the right direction."

Adrian nodded. "I see your point. Well then, let me at him; let me see if he's really got the right stuff."

"Sure, have it your way. But remember, dreams are a very dangerous thing to mess with."

"What do you mean?" But when Adrian turned around, the man was gone. "And like that, he's gone. I swear, if he's not dead by the time I die, I will solemnly swear that he's Arceus himself."

* * *

Ash and Sawyer returned from the registration desk with grins on their faces. "Well, we're registered for the League!" Sawyer started.

"Now it's time for training!" Ash finished.

The group laughed at their antics before Serena noticed a familiar hairstyle in the crowd. Grinning wildly, she waved her hands up. "Shauna! Over here! It's me Serena!"

Said girl turned around, recognizing the voice. She squealed in delight before rushing over to her bestie, her two friends close behind. "Serena it's great to see you!"

The best friends embraced each other before greeting the rest of the party. "Hey there Ash, Clemont, Bonnie! It's so great to see you all!" Shauna greeted.

"Hey Ash, I take it you're here for the league as well?" Trevor asked.

Ash nodded. "Yep, I'm super psyched because this year, I'm going to win it all!"

"You mean me!" Sawyer corrected. "I'm going to win it."

The three friends turned to the new comrade. "Oh, this is Sawyer!" Bonnie introduced. "He's a new trainer from Hoenn. Sawyer, this is Shauna, Trevor, and Tierno."

Sawyer nodded. "It's nice to meet you all."

"That's great!" Tierno grinned. "My team and I are ready to give you a dance of your lives."

"You see," Shauna explained, "Tierno's not only a league trainer, but he also wants to be a Pokemon dancer!"

"I would be a performer if I could, but it's a girls only competition." The boy muttered.

Serena frowned. "It really is a bummer."

"Then why don't you just be a Coordinator?"

The group stared at the raven haired teen. "What's a Coordinator?"

Ash grinned, turning to his best friend. "Back home, Pokemon Coordinators would compete in Contests, showing off both beauty and skill in their appeals and battles. I had several friends who were Coordinators, both boys and girls alike."

Tierno immediately kneeled before Ash, "Oh please tell me how to become one! This is like a dream come true!"

Ash seemed rather put off by the sudden affection Tierno had taken towards the Pikachu trainer. Shauna and Serena sighed.

"At least he's not trying to flirt with me anymore." Serena muttered.

"Umm..." Ash managed, "I think it's only in the Kanto, Hoenn, and Sinnoh regions that host Pokemon Contests. Unova didn't have anything like that and Kalos has the Performances."

"Hold on," Trevor interrupted, "In order to know something like that, you've got to have been to those regions before. How many regions have you been to?"

"Umm...six regions."

The new group stared at him. "Really?" Trevor gasped, "That's a lot of regions! You must have seen a whole lot of Pokemon."

Ash felt a little uncomfortable with all the attention focused on him. Maybe this is why he preferred to pretend he was just a newbie trainer. "We were just going to check his records." Clemont added.

The group their way to the computers, updating each other on recent events. Serena discovered that Shauna also had all three Princess keys and was preparing for the upcoming Master Class Performance. Ash and Serena tactfully decided not to mention their shenanigans in the Team Flare base.

When they started up the computers, Clemont typed in 'Ash Ketchum' into the trainer's registry and pushed the search button.

What they found nearly overwhelmed the group.

ASH SATOSHI KETCHUM

AGE: 16

GENDER: M

HOMETOWN: Pallet Town, Kanto

TRAINER CLASS: League Trainer

LEAGUES ENTERED:

Indigo Conference: Top 16

Silver Conference: Top 8

Ever Grande Conference: Top 8

Lily of the Valley Conference: Top 4

Ventress Conference: Top 8

Underneath were several links to his recorded League battles. Clemont inhaled slowly before clicking on a link. A window opened revealing the highlights of a match between a red and orange dragon and a cross between a bird and martial artist. Ash grinned. "I remember that fight. That was back in the Silver Conference between Harrison's Blaziken and my Charizard. Man that was a long time ago, right Pikachu?"

"Pika!"

The group remained silent as Clemont brought up a second match between a Pikachu and Meowth, both exchanging Thunderbolts and Iron Tails. Ash's face lit up. "Oh yeah, that was that super powerful Meowth. I'm glad Team Rocket's Meowth isn't like his." Ash joked to himself.

"Guys?" He turned to his friends, who were watching a third battle closely.

The scene had changed to a familiar Sceptile slashing past a black Pokemon, fainting it on the spot. The group glanced from the screen to Ash, and back again. Ash sweated nervously. "Guys?"

"You fought a Darkrai?" The group cried in disbelief.

"You're so cool Ash!" Sawyer added on, his eyes sparkling.

Shauna, noticing the entire thing, gave Serena a playful nudge. "Looks like Ash has a couple new admirers. You'd better make a move on him before these guys take him away from you."

Serena froze. Ash couldn't lean that way...could he?

"Hey guys, we're back. What are you doing here at the computers?"

The group turned to see a familiar party approaching them. Ash grinned. "Oh, hey Adrian, we're just looking over some of my old battles."

Adrian raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Really now? Which battle were you watching?"

"My final battle against Tobias in the Sinnoh League."

Alley and Adrian shared a look. "Oh really," Alley started, "I've met the guy before. Pretty powerful trainer, though he could lighten up on the entire Darkrai first procedure."

"Actually," Ash corrected, "He also had a Latios as well. Pikachu had a tough time dealing with him."

Adrian's eyes lit up with a mischievous look. "Really? That must have been quite a fight." He gave a look towards the twins. Only Serena noticed Ruby shivering slightly, muttering something about Type Resistances being damned. She shrugged, dismissing it as something irrelevant.

The screen had changed to show Pikachu riding a blue and white dragon, calling down Thunderbolt after Thunderbolt onto the helpless dragon before both crashed onto the ground, fainting both. Sapphire chuckled slightly before whispering into her brother's ear. "That must have hurt."

The boy shivered in response.

"Well Ash, I'd love to see some of your other Pokemon in action. What do ya say?" Adrian held out his hand.

Ash pondered the idea. Last time he brought in his reserve Pokemon, he had reached Top 4, who's to say that if he brought in the rest of his reserves he'd win? "I'll give it a shot then, but first I should check in with Professor Oak first."

He scooped up his partner and ran off. "I'll be right back. Can you guys get a room for us? That'll be great!"

Bonnie grinned slyly as she leaned up against Serena. "Wow Serena, Ash wants to 'get a room' with you."

Sapphire nodded. "That sounds so dirty Serena. I didn't even know you guys got that far."

"Stop it!" Serena cried, "How do you even know about that sort of stuff? You're only nine and ten!"

Clemont stared at the girls in confusion. "Do you know what they're talking about?"

Trevor and Tierno shook their heads. "Nope, not a clue."

Ruby groaned. "Come on guys, why do I have to be the only guy who's not dense!"

Watching from afar, Adrian gave his girlfriend a grin. "Well then, shall we go 'get a room' as well?"

His comment definitely earned his slap on the face. "In your dreams Eevee boy."

"Hey where did that come from?"

"Don't you have something else to do as well?"

Adrian froze. "That's right. I completely forgot. Where would I be without you Alley?"

"...nowhere..."

"Wow...thanks for the vote of confidence."

"You're welcome."

* * *

The Kalos League registration desk was pretty much empty now, the majority of the trainers already registered. The receptionist had begun to close up when the door opened to reveal a young man.

"Hello there!" She greeted, "Are you here to register for the League?"

The man nodded in silence. The receptionist groaned, yet another strong silent type. Every league had their share of those types. "Can I see your badges please?"

Instead of a familiar badge case, the man handed the woman an ID card. The receptionist looked over the card before gasping in surprise. "Oh my, it's not every year we get one of you competing. Would you like to register you under your name or as anonymous?"

The man raised one finger, indicating the first option. The receptionist nodded before typing in the information into the computer. "Well then sir, here's your schedule and room key and...I hope you find what you're looking for."

The man nodded before leaving. When the receptionist looked down, she noticed a handwritten note on the desk.

 _It's not what I'm looking for, but whom._

 _*_ With the Kalos League underway, our heroes rest, awaiting the opening ceremony. But it looks like Ash isn't the only one who's registered. Stay tuned to find out.*

"Who are you?" The receptionist stared into open space.

*No one important, just the narrator.*

"Oh..."

* * *

Ok let's go over what I've introduced today.

Sawyer and the Kanto starter trio. I always felt like Tierno would make a fun Coordinator, don't you? Also the boss...well...we'll find out more later. He's an actual anime character, so I'm challenging you to guess who he is.

Ruby seems to have bad memories concerning a certain Pikachu.

Ash is revealed to be a veteran trainer rather than the glorified rookie everyone treats him as. I always wondered how people who treat him if they knew about his achievements. I think Iris definitely would treat him differently. Max is the only person who's ever referenced Ash's exploits in a different region besides Ash himself or Brock.

Also, Kalos and Unova I feel like a bit isolated from the Japanese regions, thus they might be a little less familiar with Pokemon Contests.

Also a new figure enters the Kalos League.

Please let me know what you think of this fic so far. I finished Y and need friend codes for the friend safari. If you're interested PM me and we can work something out.

Please **Follow** and **Review**.

May the Force of the Lord God Almighty be with you Always!

UCCMaster


	11. Chapter 11

Hey everyone, UCCMaster here!

This is our first battle scene.

Anyways, enjoy this next chapter.

I do not own Pokémon

* * *

The Renaissance Stadium was bustling with activity. Over two hundred trains had come to compete, the hype filling the air.

Ash entered the battlegrounds with Pikachu on his shoulder to find more people than the eye could see standing on the fields. Now where could he stand?

"Hey Ash, over here!"

The raven haired teen spotted Tierno and Sawyer waving him down. He smiled as he joined the two. "Hey guys, you ready for battle?"

Tierno nodded. "We're always ready for a battle like this!"

"Me and Sceptile can't wait!" Sawyer added.

"That's great," Ash responded, "Except for one thing."

The group stared at their friend. "What?"

Ash grinned as he threw his fist in the air. "I'm going to be winning it!"

"Pikachu!" The mouse pumped his own little paw.

"Oh that's what you think!" Tierno grinned. "But I think I'll be the one taking home the prize."

"No, me!" Sawyer interjected. The group laughed at their enthusiasm.

"Let's just stick with, we're giving it our all." The group turned around in surprise to see a very familiar young man walking towards them.

"Adrian, what are you doing here?" Ash called in surprise. "How'd you get in here by the way?"

"Oh, didn't I mention it? Before we met up, I already had all the Gym Badges. I guess I forgot to tell you: from now on, we're rivals in battle. Is that fine with you?"

Ash nodded. "Doesn't change anything for me. Pikachu and I are pumped for a rematch with you!"

"Blacky can't wait either. He's very eager for a rematch with your Pikachu as well."

"Who's Blacky?" Sawyer asked.

"Oh, I guess you haven't met him yet. Blacky is my Umbreon." Adrian took out a Pokeball, releasing the black and yellow ringed fox.

"Umbre!" Blacky greeted the group before noticing a familiar mouse. "Umbre, Umbreon!"

"Pikachu!" Pikachu waved back.

Ash grinned. This is why he loved the Pokemon League. It brought trainers together under one roof. It forged friendships through rivalries. Rivals and friends became one and the same in your passionate fight for victory. This is the Kalos League, and he was here to win it!

The jarring sound of a microphone screeching snapped him out of his revelry. His attention was redirected to the center of the arena, where a familiar old man stood on several step stools before a podium. It was none other than Mr. Goodshow.

"Greetings everyone! Today marks the day the Annual Renaissance Conference will begin!" Everyone cheered loudly. Once the noise had died down Mr. Goodshow continued. "I hereby congratulate all the trainers that qualified and will participate in the Renaissance Conference. It has been a long road to gain the eight badges needed to get this far and it all ends here, with all of you fighting for the Renaissance Conference trophy!

"But the road is even harder now. There are more than two hundred trainers here, but only one can emerge victorious, who will that be?" he asked, waving his arms dramatically at the crowd of trainers.

Ash turned to Pikachu, "That's going to be us!"

"Pikachu!" The mouse nodded.

*With the Renaissance Conference in beginning, Ash, Sawyer, Tierno, and surprisingly Adrian prepare for battle.*

Mr. Goodshow glanced around in confusion. "Who said that? Never mind, and now for the lighting of the torch!"

Ash raised his eyes to the top of the arena to a huge golden torch. An athlete clad in white held the a torch burning with a golden flame. He lowered the flame into the golden torch, lighting it ablaze.

The crowd cheered as Mr. Goodshow announced. "Now let the Conference begin!"

* * *

Ash stepped onto the battlefield, a familiar feeling he hadn't felt in a full year. This time he was going to win it all. Last time he had suffered greatly in defeat, but this time...something was different. This time he was going to win.

"On Field Three we have Ash Ketchum of Pallet Town versus Shen Veil of Ninja Village!" The announcer...well...announced.

Ash noticed the man wearing a twilight colored ninja outfit and a matching mask covering his entire face, minus his eyes.

"So you're Ash Ketchum." The man spoke with a deep voice. "My son speaks highly of you."

Ash frowned. "Your son?"

"Yes, Sanpei apologizes that he couldn't be here himself, but he sends he greetings."

Oh, that made sense. This man was Sanpei's father. "Well, it's nice to meet you then." Ash greeted the man.

"Indeed, I look forward to this battle very much."

The referee, noticing their conversation closing, began. "This will be a three on three match between Ash Ketchum and Shen Veil. The winner will be the one who can defeat all three of the opponent's Pokemon without losing their own team. Substitutions are allowed."

Ash grinned, clenching a Pokeball in his hand.

"Battle Begin!"

"Tread carefully, Golbat!" The man's Pokeball released the bat Pokemon.

Ash took in the sight of the Pokemon before choosing his own. "Glalie I choose you!"

The face Pokemon hovered in front of the bat, grinning at the chance to battle. Ash grinned as he recollected his call back to Professor Oak's.

* * *

After Ash left the group, he had rushed over to the video phones. "You ready to call back some old friends Pikachu?"

The mouse nodded. "Pika, Pika!"

"Great!" The duo had reached to phones. Ash found a stall and dialed a familiar number. When the screen flashed, it revealed a certain grey haired Professor wearing a pajamas and a night cap. Ash tried to contain his laughter at the interesting choice of pajamas. "Hi there, Professor!"

"Ash," The professor yawned. "Do you know what time it is?"

Ash quickly did a calculation in his head. "It's midnight Professor. Sorry about that."

"Oh, never mind. What can I do for you Ash?"

Ash turned to Pikachu. "Well in case you haven't noticed, I'm at the Kalos League now and I'd like to bring some of my old Pokemon back into my team, if that's okay with you."

The professor nodded. "Ok course Ash, who would you have me bring out?"

"I just sent you a list Professor, though I think I'll be changing around a lot. My friend Adrian challenged me to interchange my teams with some of my older Pokemon."

"I see Ash. Well, I just got your list, but can I make a quick request?"

"Sure Professor. What do you want?"

The professor yawned. "Two things. One, can you switch out Donphan for Muk? I have an important paper coming in and I'd prefer if he wasn't there to mess up my work."

Ash nodded. "Sure, it'd be great to have him back."

"And second, can you call at an earlier time in the future? This is definitely not a good time."

The teen chuckled. "I get it Professor, I'll try."

"Right then, I'll start gathering the Pokemon but you won't get them until tomorrow as they're still sleeping."

"Ok then Professor. Good night."

"Good night to you too Ash."

* * *

Now rearmed with a new arsenal, Ash was sure that he could win this this time.

* * *

Serena, Bonnie, and Clemont watched the match closely. "Hmm…I never knew Ash had a Glalie." Clemont muttered aloud.

"I wonder what other Pokémon Ash is going to bring out!" Bonnie giggled. "Maybe they're as cute as you are Dedenne!" The hamster popped out of the pouch with a cheer.

"Ash definitely is stronger with some of his old Pokémon." Serena noted as she observed her raven haired crush. The teen had so much more poise and confidence as he commanded the floating face into a spinning Head butt, effectively knocking out the bat Pokémon. The sheer exhilaration beaming from his face made Serena's heart beat so fast she wondered if she was going to faint. Where did he get this strength and confidence from? Glalie was one of his older, veteran team. Maybe being with his veteran Pokémon made him stronger. "I wonder if he was stronger with his old friends too…"

Unfortunately for her, a certain blonde girl jabbed her playfully. "Don't talk like that Serena! Ash is plenty strong with us too!"

The jibe figuratively punched Serena in gut. How could she sell herself so short? Bonnie was right. Just because Ash had experience with his veteran Pokémon didn't mean that she was holding him back from his dream. Ash had mentioned a few friends in the time they had spent in Kalos. A girl named Dawn and a guy named Brock: Ash had mentioned that they were some of his past traveling companions. Dawn apparently was one of those, what were they called? Oh yeah, Coordinators. They were sorta like Performers except they also had a battle tournament as well. She also was from some place called Sinnoh. Brock, according to Ash, was a Gym Leader like Clemont but he apparently specialized in Poison types, since he had a Croagunk. What did they mean to Ash?

She continued to watch as Bisharp battled a massive Torterra, trying to plow through Leaf Storm after Leaf Storm. But to her surprise, despite having type resistance, the Steel Dark type was clearly struggling against the torrent of razor sharp leaves. Then Ash made his mistake. He ordered Torterra to cease his attacks and charge up Energy Ball. Seeing an opening, Shen had Bisharp rush forward and use Metal Claw. Things seemed bleak as Serena held her breath, hoping for Torterra to be able to take such a swift attack. That's when Shen realized he had fallen into a trap. The Metal Claw struck the fully charged Energy Ball, hurling it not forwards, but backwards…right back into the tortoise's mouth. To the excitement the crowd, Torterra swallowed the attack, pulsing energy into his reserves as his trees glowed brightly. Serena's heart soared as she watched Torterra completely obliterate the battlefield with a Rock Climb before using the now jagged terrain to pounce the dazed Bisharp. When Torterra got up, the Bisharp clearly was knocked out from the sheer weight of such a Body Slam.

"Ash, you really are something else." She murmured softly, holding tightly onto the ribbon the raven haired teen had gifted her so long ago.

* * *

"Congratulations Mr. Ketchum, I haven't had this fine of a battle since I was a lad." The ninja acknowledged. "Not many trainers force me to use my trump card, but now you have the honor of facing my own faithful starter. Go Dewott!"

* * *

The Discipline Pokemon stood bravely on the field as it faced the Continent Pokemon. Ash frowned before recalling Torterra. Bonnie stared at her brother in surprise. "Why is Ash recalling Torterra. Isn't a Grass type like Torterra have an advantage against a Water type like Dewott Brother?"

Clemont gazed on. "Hmm...you have a point."

"Maybe it's because Ash didn't want to battle Dewott with Torterra." Serena commented.

"But why?" Bonnie asked.

"It doesn't make sense, Torterra obviously is the best choice. Glalie is not going to be a wise choice either." Clemont muttered.

"Maybe it's simply that Ash wants to use a different Pokemon simply for the fun of it." Serena offered.

The group stared at her in shock. Was she really serious?

"It makes sense," Serena explained. "He's got three Pokemon and Shen only has one. Even if he loses the match he has two other Pokemon to back him up."

The older blonde boy fixed his glasses, "Ah-ha! I see what you mean."

The group returned their gaze to see Ash had called out his third Pokemon: a golden owl. Clemont stumbled back in surprise. "Tha...that's a Shiny Pokemon!" He exclaimed in surprise.

And sure enough it was. A shiny Noctowl soared over the determined Dewott. Instead of its normal brown feathers and down, a golden coat shimmered in its place. Serena pulled out her Pokedex to analyze the shining bird.

 _"Noctowl, the Owl Pokémon, and the evolved form of Hoothoot. Noctowl's eyes have a special power that allows it to see in the faintest light, as if it was the middle of the day."_

The blonde girl compared to the image on her Pokedex to Ash's bird. "Wow, Ash sure has a lot of powerful friends backing him."

Bonnie agreed. "He so cool, isn't he Dedenne?"

The hamster gave a cute thumbs up. "Nene!"

* * *

Back on the field, Ash and Shen gazed hard into each other's eyes, attempting to predict the first move. Both knew the importance of calling and countering the first move. Finally Ash took initiative.

"Noctowl, fly up and use Air Slash!"

The owl flew up, its golden wings bending the air to its will before summoning a sphere of air currents. Taking aim at the otter far below, the owl raised it above his head before hurling the sphere downwards. Shen immediately took action. "Dewott counter with Water Pulse, then get up there with Aqua Jet!"

The otter summoned an equally large sphere of water, hurling it at the incoming sphere. Without even waiting for the two to impact, he jetted into the air, a torrent of water hailing his rise. However, Ash was ready for the move. "Noctowl dodge and use Extrasensory!"

"Block with X-Scissor!"

The owl unleashed a golden beam of psychic waves only to be blocked by twin scalchops glowing with Bug type energy. "Now Dewott, follow up with Razor Shell back to back!"

"Get low and prepare Extrasensory!" The owl barely escaped the twin shells, with the tips just grazing his golden down. The bird silently dropped down and a beam of golden energy began powering up on his forehead. Shen followed up with a second attack. "Aqua Jet down!"

"Fire!"

The golden owl fired the beam point blank range into the water covered otter...only for the otter to disappear. Ash gasped. "What?"

Shen gave the teen a feral grin. "Good, now that your substitute is broken, drop down and use Razor Shell."

Before the owl could respond, a familiar otter landed on the owl's back and began hacking away at the owl with it's glowing blades. Ash cringed, that was just plain dirty...wait, didn't he pull something like that back in Sinnoh? Oh, right, that battle with Tobias's Latios. Now how did Tobias get Pikachu off again? Oh right! "Noctowl, this is going to take a few steps. First use Reflect!"

The owl managed to hear his trainer through the painful slashes and summoned a psychic shield, greatly reducing the effectiveness of the attacks. That felt better. But that was just the first part of Ash's plan. "Now use Sky Attack to get high into the sky while spiraling!"

Shen's eyes widened as the great owl blasted off into the air, rotating at high velocity. "Dewott hold on tight!"

Unfortunately, it was already too much for the otter, who lost his grip near the peak of the dive upwards. The otter began to fall towards the ground helplessly. Ash grinned. "Now finish your Sky Attack!"

The glowing owl gained even more speed as he looped into a high velocity dive. Dewott's eyes widened as he noticed his impending doom. However, it appeared that Shen had one last trick up his sleeve. "Dewott, spin around and use Aqua Jet!"

The otter managed to turn around and jetted forwards towards the owl at top speed within a funnel of water. As they grew closer, Ash racked his head for some way to avoid the collision. It was like he was back in his final Sinnoh League match, only that their roles were reversed. What would Tobias have done differently if they were in the same situation? Hmm, that was a Dewott, the evolution of Oshawott. Did that mean that it also shared the same quirks as his own? If so...that might work. "Noctowl, break off your attack!"

The owl's already large eyes widened at his trainer's command. Was Ash really serious? However, the owl obeyed and aimed slightly lower than the otter, narrowly missing his target as he slowed down. The otter on the other hand noticed that he hadn't crashed into something. He ceased his Aqua Jet and opened his eyes to try to find the golden birdie. Shen immediately realized Ash's strategy. "Dewott, get out of there, now!"

The otter turned to face the direction of his trainer only to meet the large eyes of Noctowl. "Hypnosis!"

The moment the hypnotic waves hit the otter at point blank, he drifted off into a soothing rest. The otter, no longer aware of his surroundings, began to drop towards the ground, only to be saved by the owl catching him on his back. Noctowl slowly landed, letting the otter onto the ground gently. Ash looked up at the otter's trainer. "Unless you have Sleep Talk, could we call this the end?"

Shen's eyes glared at the teen before he gave a soft chuckle. "I'm impressed Ash Ketchum. You handle yourself well both on the battlefield and off. Very well, I concede the battle."

The referee raised his arm towards Ash. "Shen has conceded Dewott, thus removing his last able Pokemon. Thus Ash Ketchum is the winner!"

The crowd cheered. Ash looked around surprise. What had started with just Serena, Bonnie, Clemont, and a few spectators had grown into an enormous crowd, drawn in by the cunning and daring tactics exhibited before them. Shen observed the crowd before walking up to the boy. Placing his arm on the boy's shoulders, his eyes smiled. "I'm honored to have battle the apprentice of my son. Though it is a pity, I hoped to battle that Greninja my son keeps raving about. We should have a rematch someday. Feel free to come by Ninja Village whenever you wish."

Ash bowed respectfully. "Thank you sir. Your Dewott kept me on my toes and helped me remember something important."

"And what is that young man?"

Ash gestured towards his Noctowl. "While it's important to always be seeking new friends, it's also important not to ignore your old ones too. I haven't used any of these Pokemon in two years sir. But they were crucial in this battle. I had to remember old routines and strategies I haven't used in a long time. When I did, I was reminded of all the fun times I had with them and I regret not giving them time after I left their home region."

The man chuckled as he extended his hand. "Well then, that was a good lesson indeed. I hope to see you soon for our rematch. What do you say? My Dewott versus your Greninja, a true battle between ninjas."

Ash took the man's hand. "You've got a deal."

* * *

"That was quite a battle, don't you think?"

Serena turned around in surprise to see Adrian, Alley, Sapphire, Ruby, and to her surprise, Mairin. Serena slyly noticed the green clad girl was sitting quite closely to Ruby. "Oh when did you guys get here? And you too Mairin?"

"Oh," Mairin blushed, "I got here today. After going through Team Flare's files, Professor Sycamore discovered a cure for Chespie and now he's expected to make a full and complete recovery. So he told me to come here to watch the matches."

"We got here in time to see Ash's battle with Noctowl." Adrian added.

Clemont nodded. "That was quite the battle."

"Indeed it was." Alley agreed, "It looked quite similar to that battle between Pikachu and Latios we watched."

"I don't get how that Noctowl escaped the collision." Ruby muttered, "He should have crashed."

"Why?" Sapphire nudged her brother, "You jelly that Noctowl won instead of it being a tie?"

Ruby only managed to growl, though it sort of came out like a chirp. Mairin stared at her friend curiously. "Did you just chirp?"

The boy's eyes widened as he vigorously shook his head. "No, nope, I didn't. I don't chirp. Humans don't chirp, you know?"

The girl seemed to buy the boy's answer hesitantly. "Okay..."

Serena, unaware of their chat, was still in conversation with her cousin. "So how was your match?"

Adrian shook his head. "That guy was decent, but I don't get how he got to the League with his team. Seriously? All he had was a Pidgey, a Nidorina, and a Quiladon."

"In other words, Adrian won." Alley corrected her boyfriend.

"I see." Serena dismissed the information as she noticed Ash join the group.

"Hey everyone, good to see you guys here." He greeted only to be tackled by a blonde child.

"Ash you're so cool!" Bonnie cried, her hamster nodding in agreement. "Nene!"

The raven haired teen grinned. "Thanks Bonnie, but I have to give all the credit to Glalie, Torterra, and Noctowl. They're the ones who did the work."

"But you came up with those strategies!" Serena protested.

Clemont fixed his glasses. "I must agree Ash. Each battle you won using unorthodox tactics that I would have never thought possible. You defeated Golbat with a spinning Headbutt, Bisharp with Torterra eating his own Energy Ball, and Dewott with that surprise Hypnosis attack. No ordinary trainer could have thought up of that."

"Really?" Ash stared at his friends in surprise.

"Ash, you demonstrated superb skills not found in a lot of trainers these days. Most trainers can't think outside the box like you can. You're quite clever and daring with your tactics." Alley commended the boy, "Where did you get the inspiration for those tactics?"

Ash pondered the thought for a moment before turning to Pikachu. "What do you think buddy? When did we get so good?"

"Pikachu!" The mouse seemed to be thinking hard, doing the Thinker pose with his cute little paws, altogether making for quite a cute Pikachu. "Pika, Pika Chu!"

"You think so?" Ash checked with his partner, who nodded. "Pikachu thinks we got the most creative after we did our Battle Frontier run."

"What's the Battle Frontier?" Clemont asked.

"I can explain," Adrian interrupted, "The Battle Frontier is an organization of Pokemon Trainers dedicated to promoting the bonds between humans and Pokemon. The more powerful trainers set up facilities where you can battle the trainers known as 'Brains' for a special symbol."

"So you battled these Brains Ash?"

The teen nodded, "You see, Pikachu and I challenged all the Frontier Brains and won. But I'm curious Adrian, how do you know about them? Not many people know about the Battle Frontier."

"I can explain that." Alley cut in. "Ash, do I look familiar to you?"

Serena stared at the girl in confusion as Ash stared hard at the woman. "Um...I guess. Hold on, I'm getting a feeling I've met someone like you at one point."

"That's right," the woman nodded. "You met my younger sister, Anabel."

Both boy and Pokemon stared at the woman in surprise. "You're Anabel's older sister?"

The woman nodded. "I do some work for my sister from time to time so I'm familiar with the insides and out of the Frontier."

"Hold on!" Serena called. Here was another girl who Ash apparently knew. "Who's this Anabel?"

"Oh, Anabel was this girl I met during my Battle Frontier run." Ash explained, "You see, she had this cool ability to understand the hearts of Pokemon...can you do that Alley?"

The woman chuckled, shaking her head. "Sadly, I didn't inherit my younger sister's gift. I'm just a normal Pokemon Watcher. Which is funny since my sister can't draw if her life depended on it."

"Oh," Ash mumbled before dismissing it. "You see, what was interesting was that Anabel was a Frontier Brain, in fact she was my own age! Can you believe that?

"Then again," he muttered to himself, "I got the same invitation to join the Frontier Brains after I defeated Brandon."

"Why didn't you join?" Bonnie asked.

"Well," Ash explained, "I still wanted to keep traveling. I didn't like the idea of being stuck in the same place for an extended period of time. But then again, I was only thirteen when I was given the offer."

"Hold on,"Adrian interrupted, "Let me give you a hypothetical question. If you were offered the position again, would you take it?"

The boy thought hard. That was a tough question. "I don't know. I might but I still want to be a Pokemon Master. And that means winning the Kalos League and defeating the Champion!"

Adrian sighed for an unknown reason. "I see, well good luck Ash, you're going to need it."

The boy walked away from the confused group. "Did I say something wrong?" Ash asked.

*With Ash and Adrian's first battles coming to a close, our heroes come upon a sensitive topic for Adrian, but why?*

"Hey, it's none of your business!" Alley yelled.

"Alley, you know you're yelling at the sky?" Sapphire pointed out.

"It doesn't matter!"

* * *

Hey guys, hope you enjoyed this chapter. I hope I spicened up the battles this time. Anyways I going to stick with the League of Legends champions being Ash's opponents. Any suggestions on what champions to use?

Please **Follow** and **Review**.

May the Force of the Lord God Almighty be with you Always!

UCCMaster


	12. Chapter 12

Hey everyone, UCCMaster here!

Hey guys, I made this chapter really short but I felt like I should post something. There's a whole lot of League references here!

I do not own Pokémon

* * *

"Escavalier, run them through with Drill Run!"

"Infernape, meet it head on with Flare Blitz!"

The two powerful Pokemon clashed head on into each other, fiery fist versus twirling twin lances. However, ultimately the fist prevailed over the lances as Infernape's flaming aura proved too much for the Calvary Pokemon. The knight flew back and fainted promptly, burns riddling its metallic armor.

"Escavalier is unable to battle, thus Ash Ketchum is declared the victor and will be moving onto the next round."

"No, how could I lose?" The purple haired duelist cried. "I'm the head of House Laurent of Kalos, the greatest duelist of land."

She watched the young trainer embrace his fire friend warmly, applauding him for his courage and strength in battle before herself smiling, her original arrogance subsiding into humility. She approached the trainer, a faint smile on her face.

"Congratulations young Ketchum," She extended her hand, "It is not everyday someone is able to say they defeated Fiora of House Laurent. You fought with precision and grace just like myself and I wish you the best of luck in the Kalos League."

Ash shook the woman's hand. "Thank you Miss Fiora, it was great battling you. Your Gallade and Doublade were amazing, not to mention your Escavalier pushed Infernape to his limits. You're a really powerful trainer and I look forward to a rematch someday."

"Oh, thank you young Ketchum." The woman spoke with the tadist amount of gratitude, "Now if you'll excuse me, I must return home. The affairs of House Lauren are never over and the Rift awaits me!"

With that, the woman drew her rapier, tossed it into the air as she twirled a full 360 and caught it before vanishing before their eyes. Ash turned to his partner. "What was that all about?"

The mouse shrugged. "Pikachu."

"Yeah, you're right. We should go see how Sawyer, Tierno, and Adrian are doing."

"Pikachu!"

 **With another victory in his belt, Ash moves up into the next round of the Kalos League. What rivals await him there?**

* * *

"I don't see why this is such a big deal."

"But then why was your Jolteon chasing you around the arena electrocuting you?"

"He just doesn't like it when I send her against male opponents."

"Why didn't you just send someone else?"

"Who else was I supposed to send against an Umbreon?

"Doesn't Espie know Dazzling Gleam?

"...that's beside the point!"

Ash entered the common room to find Serena, Adrian, and Alley already bickering amongst themselves.

"Hey guys, what's going on here?"

The moment the older raven haired man noticed him, he rushed up to Ash on his knees. "Please Ash, help me convince everyone here I'm innocent!"

Ash gave Adrian a queer look. "Of what?"

"You see Ash," Alley explained, "Adrian sent his Sylveon against a male Umbreon who practically spent the entire match flirting with her. Now Nymphia's mate Thunders feels that he has to electrocute Adrian as punishment for 'abusing' her in that manner."

"As I said before, it's not my fault that Nymphia's ability is Cute Charm."

"Well it's your fault for sending a naive girl like that against such a deviant ruffian such as that Taric's Umbreon. I swear they just hit on everything, from Nymphia to even you!" Alley groaned.

"Hey, I don't lean that way."

Ash moved to stand next to Serena. "What's going on?"

Serena giggled. "Oh, just watching Adrian's match was quite humorous. It's something you wouldn't get."

Ash observed the two bickering fiercely. "I'm not so sure I want to understand."

"I know, I wish I didn't either."

"Where's Clemont and Bonnie?"

"Oh, Bonnie noticed some young blonde haired girl to propose to and Clemont chased after her. I'm slightly worried though."

"Why?"

"She had this huge hulk of a brother who looked like he was going to pound Clemont if he tried any funny business." Serena giggled as she recollected Bonnie's proposal to the young armored blonde maiden with the chipper Pachirisu, Lux was her name if she recounted correctly. She didn't get the brother's name though.

"What about Ruby, Sapphire, and Mairin?"

"I'm not sure. I think I saw Sapphire wanting to take Mairin shopping and Ruby was chosen to carry all the bags."

Ash groaned as he remembered being the aide to two specific shoppers during his travels. "Don't remind me."

Serena giggled before turning to Pikachu, "Hey Pikachu, could you look after Eevee for a while, Delphox and Pancham are exhausted."

The mouse nodded before hopping down. Eevee grinned at the sight of his 'rival' and dashed towards the poor mouse, knocking him on his back.

"Vui! Vui! Eevui!"

"Pikachu!" The mouse sweatdropped. "Pika, Pikachu!"

Ash smiled at their interactions. Pikachu was the perfect older brother figure for Eevee. Someone who could keep him in check but still be fun to be around. He turned back to Serena before his mind suddenly got caught on an odd idea. "So, I got a few hours before my next match." He managed.

Serena watched him closely, unsure of where he was trying to go. "Ok..."

"And so I was wondering if...well...you'd like to...um...hang out a bit?"

The girl's eyes widened as the floodgates burst open. Was he trying to make a move on her? What should she do? Was he actually breaking his density? What could be happening? "Umm...sorta like a hang out or like a?"

"A..." Ash managed. What did he want to take her on? A hang out between two friends, yet something more than that. It was a collection of ideas, maybe something even more than that. "Well, you see, there's a lot of shops with accessories around here and I was wondering if you wanted to check out those stores and...well...then we could grab lunch or something..."

"Sure Ash, it's a date! I'll go back up to the room to get ready! Could you look after Eevee until I'm ready? Thanks Ash!" Serena dashed out, trying to hide her reddening blush.

Ash stared into oblivion for a moment before what she had just said dawned on him. Had he just asked her out on a date?

He turned to his partner and fox. "Did I just ask Serena out on a date?"

The fox tilted his head in confusion. "Vui?" What was a date? Isn't that just time of day?

Pikachu chuckled softly. "Pika, pikachu!" He'd get it when he was older.

* * *

Hey guys, hope you enjoyed this chapter. I'll be working on the next chapter post haste. Quick question? Would rather I post long chapters (3k+ words) with long breaks in-between or short chapters (1-2 K words) but be able to post pretty much every week? It's up to you? I'll try to write longer chapters, but if I don't meet my deadline, I'll just post what I've got so far for that week.

Please **Follow** and **Review**.

May the Force of the Lord God Almighty be with you Always!

UCCMaster


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